The consumer price index (CPI) last month rose 0.66 percent from a year earlier, as poor weather pushed up vegetable prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
Vegetable prices jumped 21.13 percent, while the price of eggs rose 14.66 percent, more than muting a decline in fruit prices, DGBAS Senior Executive Officer Hsu Chien-chung (徐健中) said.
As a result, food costs, which comprise one-quarter of CPI weighting, climbed 1.33 percent, the agency’s monthly report said.
A seasonal shift and the number of rainy days weighed on vegetable supply, causing price increases, Hsu said.
The 1.22 percent rise in education and recreational costs also helped push the inflation gauge higher after travel agencies raised tour fees, it said.
Living costs climbed a mild 0.93 percent following a 9.34 percent hike in gas prices, while medical and health prices edged up 0.65 percent as drugmakers hiked prices, it said.
However, garment prices dropped 1.87 percent, as companies offered discounts to boost sales of winter clothing, it said.
Transportation and communication costs softened 0.21 percent, dragged by cheaper telecom charges, it said, adding that consumer prices after seasonal adjustments rose a fractional 0.15 percent.
The core CPI, a more reliable long-term inflation tracker as it excludes volatile items, advanced 0.59 percent, the agency said.
The wholesale price index (WPI), a measure of production costs, picked up 0.58 percent as the New Taiwan dollar weakened 4.73 percent against the US dollar, making imports more expensive, DGBAS said.
For the first four months of this year, CPI grew 0.4 percent, while the WPI gained 0.64 percent, it said.
Benign inflation would give the central bank room to pat its accommodative monetary policy to help stimulate economic growth.
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