JOHANNESBURG – A few pennies’ increase in the price of a loaf of bread can mean the difference between getting by and going hungry – and erupting in anger – in the world’s poorest countries.

A spike in food prices has triggered deadly riots in Mozambique this week, and experts worry other countries that saw such unrest during the last global food crisis in 2008 could be hit again. Over the last two months alone, food prices worldwide have risen 5 percent.

In Egypt, the crisis could affect upcoming elections because the regime’s legitimacy rests on its ability to provide cheap bread.

In Pakistan, the prices of many food items have risen by 15 percent or more following floods.

In China, officials are threatening to punish price gougers, while in Serbia, a 30 percent hike in the price of cooking oil reported for next week has led to warnings of demonstrations by trade unions.

International food prices have risen to their highest levels in two years, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Wednesday, reporting a 5 percent increase between July and August alone. However, there are few parallels between today and the 2008 food crisis, which was blamed on high oil prices and growing demand for biofuels that pushed world food stocks to their lowest levels since 1982, according to Maximo Torero, an expert on markets and trade with the International Food Policy Research Institute.

In Mozambique’s case, he said, higher prices set by the government were based on monetary exchange issues.

Mozambicans saw the price of a loaf of bread rise 25 percent in the past year.

The trouble started Wednesday in the capital, Maputo. Protesters started marching peacefully but then began throwing stones, burning tires and looting shops.

Police opened fire, and tourists and business people were trapped as mobs cut off the airport road. At least seven people were killed.

The unrest continued Thursday. The government has urged calm, saying it can do little about the high prices, which were sparked by a drop in the value of the import-dependent nation’s currency.