The consumer price index (CPI) last month rose 2.25 percent year-on-year, its fastest rise in 11 months, as service providers raised charges over the Lunar New Year holiday and fuel cost hikes neared 30 percent, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The inflationary gauge might stabilize slightly this month as holiday disruptions decrease, while an increase in energy costs is expected to linger due to a low base of comparison for the whole of last year, the statistics agency said.
“Babysitters, hairdressers, taxi drivers and retail service providers raised charges steeply over the Lunar New Year holiday in keeping with tradition,” DGBAS Deputy Director Tsai Yu-tai (蔡鈺泰) said at a news conference.
Together, miscellaneous expenses lifted CPI by 0.44 percentage points, while entertainment and educational costs contributed 0.3 percentage points, Tsai said.
The six-day holiday also spurred banquet and travel demands, driving food and transportation costs up 2.98 percent and 4.66 percent respectively, Tsai said.
Hotels, theme parks, restaurants and travel agencies raised rates to take advantage of spiking demand over the holiday.
Removing the holiday effect, CPI rose 1.61 percent, but declined 0.2 percent after seasonal adjustments, Tsai said.
Food costs remained the main driver, boosting the inflationary reading by 0.84 percentage points, followed by transportation and communication costs, which contributed 0.63 percentage points, Tsai said.
Fuel costs gained 27.13 percent as crude prices have climbed from US$26.5 per barrel last year to US$52.5 per barrel, Tsai said, adding that the base effect would remain in the absence of surprises.
Core CPI, a more reliable gauge of long-term inflation movements because it excludes volatile items, stood at 1.65 percent, more than double December last year’s level of 0.81 percent, Tsai said.
The central bank might step in and raise interest rates to ease inflationary pressures if core CPI readings rise higher than 2 percent, Tsai said.
The wholesale price index, a measure of commercial production costs, rose 2.72 percent year-on-year last month, its fastest pace of increase in five years, due to higher mineral, basic metal and chemical prices, Tsai said.
Import prices advanced 10.67 percent in US dollar terms, while export prices gained 4.67 percent, Tsai said.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
Nvidia Corp’s negotiations to invest as much as US$100 billion in OpenAI have broken down, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, exposing a potential rift between two of the most powerful companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The discussions stalled after some inside Nvidia expressed concerns about the transaction, the WSJ reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the deliberations. OpenAI makes the popular chatbot ChatGPT, while Nvidia dominates the market for AI processors that help develop such software. The companies announced the agreement in September last year, saying at the time that they had signed a letter of intent for a strategic
RSS