The consumer price index (CPI) inched up 0.31 percent last month year-on-year, rising for the second consecutive month, as vegetable and fruit prices remained high amid supply disruptions caused by typhoons earlier in the year, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The increase in food costs more than balanced the depressing effect on prices of cheaper oil, the DGBAS report showed.
Food costs, which account for 25 percent of the index, advanced 5.85 percent last month from the same period last year, as the impact of typhoons Soudelor and Dujuan lingered, according to the report.
The two typhoons caused NT$2.6 billion (US$79.47 million) and NT$7 million in agricultural crop losses respectively, government statistics show.
Supply disruptions pushed vegetable and fruit prices up by 25.08 percent and 13.01 percent respectively, elevating the CPI by 1.04 percentage points, the report found.
“The inflationary gauge would have contracted 0.73 percent if vegetable and fruit price increases were excluded,” DGBAS Deputy Director Tsai Yu-tai (蔡鈺泰) told reporters.
Prices of processed food, fishery products and meat increased 5.4 percent, 2.14 percent and 1.02 percent respectively, the report said.
After seasonal adjustments, the reading increased 0.25 percent last month, the report said.
Transportation and communication costs dropped 5.15 percent annually last month due to a 23.34 percent slump in fuel prices, the report said, adding that crude oil prices hovered at about US$45 per barrel last month, compared with US$85 per barrel in the same period last year.
Fluctuating oil prices are set to continue to affect the CPI reading, the report said.
Core CPI — a more reliable measure to track long-term inflationary pressure because it excludes volatile items — registered a 0.7 percent increase last month, the report said.
The wholesale price index (WPI), a measure of production costs, fell 8.47 percent last month, easing from the revised 8.78 percent decline recorded in September, the report said.
From January through last month, the WPI fell 9.07 percent from the same period last year.
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