The consumer price index (CPI) last month grew 1.69 percent from a year earlier, the lowest in 3.5 years and below the central bank’s 2 percent target for the second straight month, as food, service and shelter prices rose at a moderate pace, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
“Consumer prices held generally stable and displayed no signs of an evident upswing going forward, although service charges remained elevated,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) said.
The inflation gauge might climb higher this month due to Typhoon Kong-rey, but is unlikely to exceed 2 percent, as autumn and winter are harvest season, Tsao said.
Photo: CNA
Food costs, the largest chunk of the CPI weighting, gained 2.7 percent year-on-year, as storms and heavy rainfalls damaged crops, pushing up fruit and vegetable prices, Tsao said.
However, prices for the 17 critical livelihood items the government monitors declined by 0.62 percent year-on-year to the lowest level in 56 months, he said.
Core CPI, a preferred long-term price tracker by the central bank because it excludes volatile items, expanded 1.64 percent, the statistics agency said.
Still, people might feel the pinch more acutely because rents advanced 2.5 percent from a year earlier and eating-out costs moved up 2.96 percent, Tsao said.
Tsao dismissed worry over an upcoming resurgence of inflation following former US president Donald Trump’s electoral victory, saying that it would take several months for policy changes, if any, to affect commodity prices.
Moreover, end-market demand for fuel and raw materials appeared soft, judging from the latest trade data, he added.
This followed a 0.69 percent drop in last month’s producer price index (PPI), a measure of the price movements of goods from a seller’s perspective, thanks to falling prices of oil, coal, electronics and chemical products amid weak market demand, the DGBAS said.
The PPI trajectory also reflected an imbalanced recovery in Taiwan’s economy, where suppliers of electronics used in artificial intelligence are flourishing, but non-tech manufacturers have wobbled.
In the first 10 months of this year, the CPI picked up 2.19 percent, while the PPI rose 1.23 percent from a year earlier, the DGBAS said.
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