The consumer price index (CPI) climbed 1.88 percent last month from a year earlier, rising for the eighth consecutive month as supply disruptions caused by bad weather last quarter continued to drive up food costs, with fruit prices soaring to a 43-month high, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The latest inflationary reading decelerated from a revised 2.01 percent in March, but it was still approaching the 2 percent level that could limit the room for monetary easing by the central bank to stimulate economic growth.
“Vegetable and fruit prices remain affected by bad weather from last quarter, pushing up overall food costs by 7.96 percent,” DGBAS Deputy Director Tsai Yu-tai (蔡鈺泰) told a news conference.
Photo: CNA
Vegetable prices surged 50.85 percent, while fruit prices gained 25.92 percent, elevating the CPI by 1.73 percentage points, the government’s monthly report said.
People with low incomes felt the pinch the most, as the CPI trend signified a 2.42 percent price increase for people with low incomes and a 1.89 percent increase for those of middle incomes, the report said. The increase eased to 1.48 percent for people with high incomes.
“That is because food costs are a bigger chunk of household income for less wealthy families,” Tsai said.
Dining costs, which account for 10 percent of the CPI because many Taiwanese eat out, increased 1.61 percent last month, the smallest rise in 27 months, the report said, as eateries refrained from raising prices to keep customers amid the weak economy.
The inflationary gauge gained a mild 0.27 percent after seasonal adjustments.
The core CPI, a more reliable tracker of long-term inflationary pressures because it excludes volatile items, logged a 0.92 percent increase, the steepest advance in 13 months, the report said.
The core reading pointed to a gradual inflationary pickup, as the disruption caused by crude oil prices narrowed.
In the first four months of the year, the CPI grew 1.77 percent from the same period last year, the report said.
The wholesale price index — a measure of production costs — fell 4.23 percent last month from a year earlier, from a revised 4.92 percent decline in March, the report said.
Cheaper crude oil prices dragged export prices down 7.13 percent in US dollar terms, the report said, as challenge for the nation’s exports to swing back to positive territory gets bigger.
The government is due to release the latest export figures on Monday next week.
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