Consumer prices rose for a third consecutive month last month, rising 1.27 percent from a year ago, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
This compares with growth of 2.35 percent year-on-year in February.
On a month-on-month basis, however, the consumer price index (CPI) dropped 0.95 percent last month, which DGBAS officials attributed to reduced service fees following the Lunar New Year holiday and promotional sales for winter clothes.
“The annual growth of 1.27 percent in consumer prices is still considered reasonable, indicating a rather moderate inflation,” DGBAS section chief Wu Chao-ming (吳昭明) told a media briefing.
Wu said consumer prices edged ahead year-on-year last month because of a lower comparison base last year, when a government program to distribute consumer vouchers to spur domestic spending drove down prices.
Among the seven sub-indexes, transportation rose the most, climbing 5.53 percent as fuel prices surged 23.25 percent on soaring international oil prices and a lower base effect, Wu said.
DGBAS data also showed that in the first three months of this year, the CPI climbed 1.29 percent on a yearly basis, slightly higher than its forecast rise of 1.27 percent for the whole year.
Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂), chief economist at Citigroup Taiwan Inc, warned that consumer prices would likely climb in the following months, citing the continued growth of the wholesale price index (WPI) and improving job market conditions.
The WPI climbed 6.61 percent year-on-year last month, compared with February’s rise of 5.87 percent, as the prices of oil products, metal and chemical materials increased, DGBAS data showed.
“While the CPI will go up in the second and fourth quarters of this year, the pace of growth will still be moderate,” Cheng said, adding that inflationary pressures are still under control.
The core CPI, which excludes volatile vegetable, fruit, fish and energy prices, grew 0.11 percent last month from a year earlier, data showed.
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