Last month’s consumer price index (CPI) increased 1.18 percent year-on-year after a revised 0.75 gain in May, but the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said the upward trend didn’t pose an inflation risk.
The CPI for the first six months rose 1.19 percent, the same as the previous five months, the statistics agency said, adding that consumer prices are expected to remain “stable” for the full year, with the inflation rate standing at an average of 1.4 percent.
The CPI is a measure estimating the average price of consumer goods and services purchased by households.
Its change in percentage is an estimate of inflation.
“The inflation rate rose last month mainly because of the Dragon Boat Festival, which fell in May last year. Some parents gave their babysitters and maids presents and fruit to celebrate the holiday,” DGBAS section chief Wu Chao-ming (吳昭明) told a media briefing yesterday.
The core CPI, which is used to track long-term inflation because it excludes volatile vegetable, fruit, fish and energy prices, grew 1.18 percent year-on-year and 0.13 percent month-on-month, the agency’s data showed.
Meanwhile, the wholesale price index (WPI) climbed 7.18 percent year-on-year last month, compared with 9.41 percent in May, chiefly because prices of oil products, base metals and chemical materials remained at high levels, DGBAS said.
However, Wu said the import price index, whether priced in New Taiwan dollars or US dollars, saw an increase of 7.18 percent year-on-year, the lowest increase in six months.
The market still feared fallout from the European debt crisis, with prices of agricultural and raw industrial materials fluctuating in the past two to three months, Wu said.
On a month-on-month basis, the CPI edged up 0.33 percent last month, which DGBAS officials attributed to the plum rain season that caused vegetable prices to rise and the conclusion of promotional sales for Mother’s Day.
Electricity bills were particularly expensive last month, with fees rising 13.15 percent from a month earlier as the summer approached, while cosmetics products rose 2.12 percent month-on-month, DGBAS data showed.
“The economic recovery and improving job market are boosting consumption and end demand,” said Chuang Rehong, an economist at SinoPac Securities Corp (永豐金證券).
“We expect a moderate price increase in the coming months,” Chuang said.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”