Fed chief Ben Bernanke denies US policy behind record global food prices

Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has dismissed the idea that the central bank’s policies are to blame for the rise in global food prices to a record high that helped trigger political unrest in Egypt.

Mr Bernanke said that the rapid growth of developing economies was behind the increase in food prices, rather than the Fed’s decision to embark on a second, $600bn (£371bn) round of printing money. “Clearly what’s happening is not a dollar effect, it’s a growth effect,” Mr Bernanke said in a rare question and answer session with journalists at the National Press Club in Washington on Thursday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8302111/Fed-chief-Ben-Bernanke-denies-US-policy-behind-record-global-food-prices.html#