A World That’s More Expensive Is Starting to Destroy Demand

 via Bloomberg

Prices for some of the world’s most pivotal products – foods, fuels, plastics, metals – are spiking beyond what many buyers can afford. That’s forcing consumers to cut back and, if the trend grows, may tip economies already buffeted by pandemic and war back into recession.

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 Global food prices set a record last month, according to the United Nations, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted shipments from the countries that, together, supply one-quarter of the world’s grain and much of its cooking oil. More-expensive food may be frustrating to the middle class, but it’s devastating to communities trying to claw their way out of poverty. For some, “demand destruction” will be a bloodless way to say “hunger.”

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Higher fuel costs already are having a dramatic effect in Asia. Foshan, a city in southern Guangdong province, started rationing gas deliveries to industrial users, and half of the province’s ceramics production lines stopped running.

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