Food and energy price shocks have been a regular part of the economic landscape and may continue to be so in the future. Food prices, in particular, are now being driven by some structural imbalances between demand and supply, as increasingly affluent consumers diversify their dietary patterns away from cereals and towards protein sources.
This calls for an effort to quickly increase the availability of these items, on which is contingent the longer term outlook for food price inflation. However, over the years, both fiscal and monetary policy approaches have clearly assimilated the lessons of the past and have moved in a direction which helps contain inflationary pressures even as growth remains robust.