Italy’s inflation hits 5.4%, outpacing the U.S. and China, as a farmers’ revolt empties shelves of pasta and mozzarella
Source: Fortune ·
Blockades over diesel costs halted mozzarella and pasta production in the south. Now farmers are joining a national strike.
From the source
Farmers tipped two bins of manure in front of Turin’s city hall Friday morning, just before tens of thousands of people set off on a march against living costs and military spending. The farmers were acting “against those who want to turn Turin into the city of arms companies,” a speaker told the crowd over a microphone. Turin was one of more than 50 Italian cities that held protests Friday during a general strike called by the grassroots union USB. Farmers marched alongside truck drivers, students and taxi drivers. The same morning, Istat reported that Italian inflation rose to 5.4% in October, its highest level in more than three years. That’s higher than in the U.S., where prices rose 3.7% in the year through September, and far above China’s 0.9%. Italian energy prices were up 31.4% from a year earlier. Gas and diesel prices are so high that people were spotted riding horses through the streets of Naples. For Italian farmers, Friday was the latest round in a month-long fight over…