Food price inflation puts consumers on a diet

In developed countries, food retail prices are rising at about six times the rate observed over the past three decades. This is one of the main causes of the inflation shock, to which central banks have reacted with unprecedented tightening of monetary policy. Interest rate hikes are not supposed to make people reduce their food consumption, needless to say. However this is what we are seeing in many countries. The food shock is caused by two factors: rising commodity prices and ...