Consumer and wholesale prices rose sharply last month compared with the same month last year as a result of the higher costs of vegetables, meat and oil, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The consumer price index (CPI), a closely-watched indicator to gauge the nation's inflation situation, jumped 2.78 percent year on year to 102.24 points last month as oil prices increased, while Typhoon Aere in late August and torrential rains last month drenched the nation, causing the prices of vegetables to soar, a DGBAS division chief, Tsuei Chou-ying (崔洲英), said at a press conference yesterday.
The index stood at 100 points in 2001, its base year.
The central bank raised its key interest rates last Thursday as part of its efforts to fight inflation, but Tsuei said "there is no inflationary pressure for the moment because the index was mainly driven up by short-term seasonal factors."
Excluding food and energy costs, consumer prices rose by only 0.99 percent compared with the same period last year, which is a very mild increase, she said.
For the first nine months this year, consumer prices rose 1.54 percent year-on-year, DGBAS said.
The wholesale product index (WPI), however, last month saw the biggest rise of 11.43 percent year on year since May 1981, which is attributed to higher international costs of oil, coal and other energy sources, the DGBAS said.
The nation's two major oil suppliers, Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), last month hiked retail oil prices, the fifth time this year, to reflect rising oil prices on global markets.
CPC president Chen Bao-lang (陳寶郎) last month reassured the public that, despite the pressure exerted by the international escalation of oil prices, there would not be any price hikes in the short term to help stabilize the nation's consumer prices.
Liang Kuo-yuan (梁國源), president of Polaris Research Institute (寶華綜合經濟研究院), said that price fluctuations in the oil sector alone would not have significant effects on the domestic economy, as crude oil imports accounted for less than 4 percent of the nation's GDP last year.
However, such price hikes would have a major impact on the industries that rely heavily on oil, such as chemical factories, the transportation sector and fishing industry, Liang said.
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