Taiwan’s headline consumer price index (CPI) last month picked up 2.08 percent from a year earlier, rising above the central bank’s 2 percent target, as bad weather disrupted crop supply and raised food prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The reading ran counter to the statistics agency’s forecast last month that it was unlikely to exceed the 2 percent level since autumn and winter are harvest season.
“The CPI should fall below the 2 percent mark this month, as the weather has stabilized, rendering food prices less volatile,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) said.
Photo: CNA.
The inflationary gauge after seasonal adjustments rose a tiny 0.08 percent, and core CPI, a more reliable long-term price tracker because it excludes volatile items, increased 1.74 percent, suggesting stable consumer prices, Tsao said.
The latest CPI data should give the central bank room to keep interest rates unchanged during its board meeting on Dec. 19, although accelerating dining out and rent costs remain a concern.
Food prices, the largest chunk of the CPI weighting, grew 3.82 percent annually after vegetable and fruit prices soared 19.43 percent and 8.5 percent respectively, due to lingering crop supply disruptions caused by typhoons in October, the agency said.
Dining-out costs gained 3.06 percent year-on-year, the fastest in eight months, but prices for the 17 frequently purchased items declined 0.2 percent, making it reasonable to call consumer prices “stable,” Tsao said.
Tsao said the noticeable advances in vegetable and fruit prices were weather driven and therefore short-lived in nature. What deserves attention is that dining-out cost hikes have stubbornly hovered at about 3 percent this year, he said.
Furthermore, shelter prices climbed 2.32 percent, with rents hiking at the fastest pace of 2.66 percent without signs of tapering off, as landlords have the upper hand, Tsao said, adding that electricity hikes this year helped drive up shelter costs.
Medicine and healthcare prices increased 2.13 percent from a year earlier, while education and entertainment costs grew 1.26 percent, reflecting more expensive materials and services, the DGBAS said.
Prices for transportation and communications dropped 0.44 percent, dragged down by cheaper international fuel prices and price discounts to facilitate car sales, it said.
The producer price index (PPI), a measure of the price movements of goods from a seller’s perspective, grew 1.18 percent after two straight months of retreat, the agency said.
The rebound came after selling prices for mineral and chemical products softened, but prices for plastic, electrical and optical products increased, it said.
In the first 11 months of this year, the CPI grew 2.18 percent while the PPI rose 1.22 percent year-on-year, the agency said.
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