Just last week, the G20 issued a comprehensive report looking at the reasons for these developments. Its central conclusion is that “marked shifts in the physical supply-demand balance … have been the main driver of  1  See OECD-FAO (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) (2011), OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2011–2020, OECD Publishing, Paris.
2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  the price fluctuations over the past ten years” and that “for many commodities, the expansion of supply has fallen short of buoyant demand”.2 Graph 1  This buoyant demand for agricultural commodities is underpinned by rising food consumption per capita as incomes rise, particularly in Asia (Graph 2).