Prices of domestic fruit and vegetables rose by an average of 16 percent year-on-year between 2003 and last year, showing more volatility than Japan, Singapore and South Korea, where prices rose by only 0.3 percent, 2.4 percent and 5.5 percent respectively, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The officials attributed Taiwan's much more volatile prices mainly to unpredictable weather, including typhoons, which they said caused flooding and consequently triggered irregular supplies of domestically grown produce.
In the DGBAS' latest report comparing the annual increase or decline in consumer price indexes (CPI) of countries around the world, officials said Taiwan's CPI advanced by an average of 1.2 percent annually between 2003 and last year, compared with 3.3 percent growth in South Korea, 2.8 percent growth in the US, 2.4 percent growth in Singapore and a 0.2 percent decline in Japan during the same period.
DGBAS officials found that prices of crude oil and related products surged by 22 percent in the US from 2003 to last year, compared with 9.2 percent in South Korea, 10.7 percent in Japan and 8.6 percent in Taiwan during the same period.
Prices of electronic and telecommunication products, however, generally declined worldwide in the three-year period, thanks to more advanced production technologies and global division of labor based on specialization, the officials said.
In Taiwan, prices of telecommunications equipment, PCs and peripherals fell by 14.1 percent, 7.9 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, in the three-year period.
By comparison, prices of PCs and peripherals declined by an average of 16.7 percent in the US between 2003 and last year, while those prices slid by an average of 12.8 percent in Japan, officials said.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
RSS