The consumer price index (CPI) last month rose 1.17 percent from the same period last year, as cigarette tax and oil price hikes continued to push up miscellaneous and transportation costs, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said yesterday.
The figure represented a fractional increase of 0.08 percentage points from September, the monthly inflation report showed.
“Cigarette prices last month grew 15.03 percent from a year earlier, underpinning a 2.93 percent pickup in miscellaneous costs,” an agency official said.
However, the pace of increase moderated significantly, as the market is soon to emerge from cigarette tax hikes intended to help fund long-term care services for Taiwan’s rapidly aging population, the report said.
Transportation and communication costs gained 2.46 percent, another main CPI growth driver these days, as international crude oil prices rose 18.61 percent from a year earlier, it said.
The increase came even though authorities cut MRT fares by 9.68 percent and telecoms lowered mobile phone and Internet service charges by 6.88 percent and 5.96 percent respectively, it added.
Food costs, which account for 25 percent of the inflationary reading, advanced 1.49 percent from a year earlier, led by a 29.49 percent surge in egg prices, a 5.74 percent gain in fruit prices and a 2.64 percent rise in milk product prices, the report said.
Meanwhile, vegetable prices declined 5.43 percent, subduing part of the food cost hikes, the official said.
Core CPI, a more reliable inflation tracker because it excludes volatile items, inched up 0.72 percent, suggesting that consumer prices are steady. The CPI reading after seasonal adjustments edged down 0.16 percent.
The wholesale price index (WPI), a measure of production costs for companies, last month rose 5.95 percent, easing from a revised 6.33 percent increase in September, the agency said.
Import prices grew 7.5 percent in US dollar terms, as mineral products continued to be more expensive, although the pace moderated, it said.
Export prices picked up a modest 1.3 percent in US dollar terms, thanks to healthy demand for mineral, chemical and industrial products, it added.
The latest WPI data suggested that imports last month continued to outperform exports in growth as in the third quarter, when external demand proved a drag on the economy, leaving private consumption to single-handedly bolster GDP growth.
In the first 10 months of this year, CPI grew 1.6 percent, while WPI rose 4.01 percent, the agency said.
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
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],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day