Investors are underestimating the severity of the “global food shock”, which is set to hammer public finances and stir up social unrest in emerging market countries for years to come, according to rating agency S&P Global.

Food prices have soared since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stymied the flow of agricultural produce from one of the world’s top exporters of wheat and other grains as well as sunflower oil. Combined with an accompanying surge in oil prices, this is likely to pressure the creditworthiness of a slew of emerging economies, S&P Global said in a report published on Wednesday.

“Rising energy and food prices represent yet further balance-of-payments, fiscal, and growth shocks to the majority of emerging markets. This intensifies strains on their public finances and ratings, which are already impacted negatively by the global pandemic,” said Frank Gill, sovereign specialist for Europe, Middle East and Africa at the ratings firm.