Annual inflation expanded at its fastest pace in four years last month, as vegetable and fruit prices climbed after the nation was struck by two typhoons, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The consumer price index (CPI) rose 3.42 percent last month from a year ago, following a 2.46 percent increase in July. It marked the highest level since August 2008, when the index expanded 4.68 percent, the DGBAS said in its monthly report.
DGBAS section chief Wang Shu-chuan (王淑娟) attributed the higher-than-expected rise in consumer prices last month to the surge in vegetable and fruit prices triggered by the two typhoons — Saola and Tembin — and torrential rains.
Vegetable prices increased 57.93 percent last month from a year earlier, the highest since October 2007, while fruit prices rose 20.14 percent, the report said.
“The year-on-year increase in vegetable and fruit prices boosted headline inflation by 1.89 percentage points last month,” Wang told a press conference.
They also drove up the annual growth in overall food prices to 8.66 percent — the most among the seven components of the index, raising headline inflation by 2.42 percentage points, Wang said.
“That means more than 70 percent of the 3.42 percent growth in headline inflation was driven by food costs,” Wang added.
Excluding vegetable, fruit and energy prices, core CPI grew by a more subdued 0.89 percent last month from a year ago, compared with an increase of 0.95 percent in July, DGBAS data showed.
Wang said the trend in core CPI showed that headline inflation might stabilize if the weather holds and food prices see only a modest increase.
The slowing wholesale price index (WPI), which slid 0.94 percent year-on-year last month, also provided more evidence that the major factor driving up consumer prices might be a short-term one, Wang added.
Donna Kwok (郭浩庄), an economist for Greater China at HSBC Asia, said the rising trend in global energy prices, coupled with the impact of recent electricity price hikes, are also starting to affect consumer prices.
Fuel prices rose 11.09 percent last month, the DGBAS said.
Kwok maintained her view that the central bank would not adjust its policy rate, currently at 1.875 percent, when it holds its quarterly board meeting on Sept. 20.
“With inflationary pressures growing on the horizon, it is unlikely the ever-prudent central bank will move to cut already accommodative rates at its next meeting in three weeks’ time,” Kwok sad in a research note.
Inflation in the first eight months of the year rose 1.84 percent, still lower than the DGBAS’ full-year forecast of 1.93 percent.
The subsidiary of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in Kumamoto, Japan, turned a profit in the first quarter of this year, marking the first time the first fab of the unit has become profitable since mass production started at the end of 2024. According to the contract chipmaker’s financial statement released on Friday, Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc (JASM), a joint venture running the fab in Kumamoto, posted NT$951 million (US$30.19 million) in profit in the January-to-March period, compared with a loss of NT$1.39 billion in the previous quarter, and a loss of NT$3.25 billion in the first quarter of
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
RESOLUTE BACKING: Two Republican senators are planning to introduce legislation that would impose immediate sanctions on China if it attempts to invade Taiwan US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday reaffirmed US congressional support for Taiwan, saying the US and “all freedom-loving people” have a stake in preventing China from seizing Taiwan by force. Johnson made the remarks in an interview with Fox News Sunday on US President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last week. In an interview that aired on Friday on Fox News, just as Trump wrapped up a high-stakes visit to China, he said he has yet to green-light a new US$14 billion arms package to Taiwan and that it “depends on China.” “It’s a very good
US President Donald Trump yesterday said he would speak to President William Lai (賴清德) as his administration considers whether to move ahead with a US$14 billion weapons sale to Taiwan — a potential arms deal that has drawn criticism from China. “Well, I’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody,” Trump told reporters yesterday when asked if he had any plans to call his counterpart, although he did not offer a time frame for when such a conversation could take place. Trump previously said he would speak to the person “that’s running Taiwan,” without specifying who he meant. “We have that situation very
RSS