Are We Exporting Food Inflation?

It’s getting more expensive — much more expensive — to eat in China and India:

Consumer prices in China rose 3.1 percent last month as food costs advanced the most since May 2012, statistics bureau figures showed today in Beijing, while India’s Commerce Ministry said inflation unexpectedly accelerated to a seven-month high. Both gauges increased more than economists had estimated.

“In both countries, in recent months, food seems to be the primary driver of the increase in inflation,” said Robert Prior-Wandesforde, a Singapore-based economist at Credit Suisse Group AG, who added that it’s “not the ideal combination” when prices accelerate as growth slows. “It complicates the life of the policy makers.”

Maybe if we stopped filling our gas tanks with food…