The consumer price index (CPI) grew at its slowest annual pace in seven months last month, affected by declines in vegetable and fuel prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
Inflation rose 0.72 percent last month — which translates to an increase of NT$432 per month for a household with monthly expenditures of NT$60,000, the DGBAS said in its monthly report.
Annual inflation rose 2.06 percent in August.
Photo: CNA
Vegetable prics shrank 20.89 percent last month from a year ago mainly due to a benign typhoon season this year, while fuel prices dropped 6.19 percent as global crude prices fell, the report said.
The wholesale price index (WPI) slid 0.67 percent last month, cutting annual gains to 0.27 percent for the first nine months of the year, because of weak global commodity prices, the report said.
“The decrease in vegetable and oil prices dragged down the CPI last month by 0.96 percentage points,” DGBAS Deputy Director Tsai Yu-tai (蔡鈺泰) told a press conference.
While the annual increase in food prices was 1.4 percent last month, the lowest level since January, because of the sharp decline in vegetable prices, the prices of 17 major household essentials monitored by the Price Stabilization Committee grew 6.11 percent, with pork prices rising 17.72 percent, its largest gain in more than six years, data showed.
Inflation in the first nine months of the year was still up 1.32 percent, the report said.
Tsai said the mixed results indicated that consumer prices were still growing at a mild and steady pace.
For instance, core CPI — which excludes vegetable, fruit and energy prices — climbed 1.55 percent last month from a year earlier, compared with an 18-month-high growth of 1.67 percent in August, Tsai said.
However, Singapore-based Leong Wai Ho (梁偉豪), senior regional economist with Barclays Capital, yesterday said the broad uptrend in core inflation would resume in upcoming months amid stronger domestic demand and stabilizing wages.
The base effect might also support a rebound in headline inflation from this month, Leong said, adding that the central bank might raise its policy interest rate by 0.125 percentage points at its quarterly meeting in December.
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