In the markets of Mozambique before Christmas there was a sudden increase in the price of food. The price of maize shot up by a quarter, tomatoes by a third and cooking oil by over 10%.
Paradoxically, this surge in food prices is linked to the same reasons why prices in other parts of the world are falling.
As Eurozone finance ministers sat down in Brussels to decide on Greece's future, across town a well-timed University of London conference was underway to try to learn lessons from Latin America's own debt crisis in the 1980s and '90s. Eurozone ministers would have done well to attend because what happened in Latin America three decades ago bears a striking resemblance to what is currently taking place in Europe.
