The Roman empire handed out free bread and put on circuses to keep its population happy. Today, subsidising the cost of living means keeping a lid on fuel as well as food prices. With the energy and food crises inflating the cost of subsidies across the developing world, governments are being forced down a route the World Bank and development economists have urged for years: cushioning poor families by targeted cash payments delinked from the cost of hydrocarbons and carbohydrates.

Energy subventions are expensive. According to a survey of International Monetary Fund economists, explicit fuel subsidies in a sample of developing countries averaged 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product last year, and implicit subsidies through price manipulations, a hefty 4 per cent.