Leaders to wrestle with '3F crisis'

As leaders of the world's leading industrialized powers gather in the resort town of northern Japan for their three-day summit beginning today, the world will focus on what "prescriptions" they will write for financial turmoil and fuel and food price hikes, dubbed as the 3F crisis that is threatening the global economy.

The world economy had become hostage to the 3F crisis, said French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde while attending a meeting of finance ministers from the G8 club in Osaka, Japan, in June.

The turbulence of the world's financial market triggered by the US subprime loan crisis has prompted huge flows of hot-money into commodities such as oil and food, sparking a surge in the prices and stoking inflation worldwide.