Food Prices Climb Closer to Record, Boosting Inflation Angst

  • UN’s gauge of global food prices increased 1.2% in November
  • Higher prices stretch consumer budgets, raise hunger worry

Customers shop for groceries at a store in San Francisco, California, U.S.

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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Food prices climbed closer to a record high, giving consumers and governments around the world an even bigger inflation headache.

A United Nations gauge of global food prices rose 1.2% last month, threatening to make it more expensive for households to put a meal on the table. It’s more evidence of inflation soaring in the world’s largest economies and may make it even harder for the poorest nations to import food, worsening a hunger crisis.