PRICES DROP FOR FOOD STAPLES
For all the worry about soaring oil and metals prices fuelling inflation, consumers may at least catch a break at the dinner table. Globally, food prices have been falling for the past three months and in December costs fell the most in more than two years. Food got cheaper thanks to a slump in prices of sugar and dairy products, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said Thursday. Prices of meat, grains and vegetable oils fell, too. Lower prices of staples may help restrain inflation at a time investors are betting it will pick up, spurred by commodities and the fastest world economy since 2011. A Bloomberg gauge of 22 raw materials rose for a record 14 days in a row last week, a three-year high. Central banks often try to set aside volatile food prices when deciding on interest rates, although staples form a bigger part of inflation baskets in developing nations such as India.