'Agflation' fears as Russia halts grain exports - papers

Russian premier Vladimir Putin has ordered a halt to all exports of wheat and other grains from August 15, raising the stakes dramatically in the crisis over wheat supplies.

"This is very serious," said Abdolreza Abbassanian, chief grain economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. "It's a desperate situation because it has caught everybody off guard. We're not facing the situation of two years ago but there is a risk of destabilising panic," the Telegraph reports. The shortage may trigger a bout of "agflation", posing a quandary for central banks. Professor Charles Goodhart from the London School of Economics fears that rising food prices will add 0.5pc to Britain's sticky inflation, already testing market tolerance. Wheat prices surged by thei...