Inflationary pressures slackened further last month, with the growth in the consumer price index (CPI) decelerating to 1.88 percent and the wholesale price index (WPI) posting its first decline in three years, thanks to falling fuel and raw material prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
With inflation subsiding, economists said the central bank would have more room to cut interest rates when it meets next week to help spur economic growth.
Consumer prices, the government’s foremost worry in July, have weakened for four consecutive months and returned to norma levels, DGBAS section chief Wu Chao-ming (吳昭明) told a media briefing.
“The CPI gained 1.88 percent year-on-year in November, the lowest since September 2007,” Wu said. “However, the index declined 1.08 percent compared with October, owing to the continued drop in oil and raw material prices, although domestic food costs remained relatively high.”
Food prices last month rose 6.94 percent from a year ago, with cooking oil topping the price hikes at 30.42 percent, followed by vegetables, fish and meat products, which gained 15.1 percent, 13.3 percent and 10.25 percent respectively, the DGBAS report showed.
For the first 11 months of the year, the CPI rose 3.73 percent, slightly higher than the 3.64 percent forecast for the entire year, the report said.
Core CPI, which is used to track long-term inflation as the index excludes energy, fruit and vegetable prices, picked up 3.16 percent, the report said.
For the first time in 36 months, the WPI took a downturn, falling 4.95 percent last month compared with a year ago, the report showed.
However, Wu said it may take a while for wholesalers and retailers to reflect the drop in prices.
The statistics official dismissed concerns about deflation, saying the CPI is forecast to rise 0.37 percent next year, adding that the IMF defines deflation as consumer prices declining for two years.
Liang Kuo-yuan (梁國源), president of Polaris Research Institute (寶華綜合經濟研究院), agreed that it was too early to worry about deflation.
“Fighting recession will continue to top the government’s agenda,” Liang said by telephone. “Deflation happens when recession is severe and lasts long enough.”
While the economy may currently be lackluster, it is forecast to pick up pace in the second quarter of next year — although the upturn may be delayed, Liang said.
The central bank may have to implement more interest rate cuts to facilitate the recovery, he said.
Wang Lee-rong (王儷容), a researcher at Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中經院), agreed.
Wang forecast a rate cut of 25 basis points, driving the discount rate down to 2.5 percent.
But Wang said the government should watch out for signs of deflation. CIER yesterday said consumer price may contract 0.95 percent next year.
“Consumers will delay spending if they expect prices to fall, rendering the government’s campaign to stimulate domestic demand futile,” Wang said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last