The consumer price index (CPI) last month rose 2.36 percent from a year earlier, above the 2 percent alert level for the third time this year, as torrential rains pushed up food prices and transportation costs remained high, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said in a report yesterday.
The statistics agency said that inflationary pressure was temporary and would subside next quarter.
“The bad weather last month disrupted vegetable and fruit supplies, driving prices up,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Food costs, the largest constituent of the inflationary measure, increased 3.84 percent, as vegetable prices soared 35.22 percent and fruit prices rose 3.6 percent, Tsao said, adding that meat prices increased 5.38 percent and fishery products rose 2.84 percent.
Food costs alone pushed the CPI reading up by 0.59 percentage points, Tsao added.
Transportation and communications costs again topped other consumption categories with a 6.51 percent increase, as fuel prices grew 23.24 percent and air fares rose 26.64 percent, outweighing a 10.66 percent decline in prices for telecommunications devices, the report said.
Food and transportation prices combined accounted for 60 percent of the growth in the CPI, Tsao said.
Core CPI, which is considered a more reliable long-term price tracker, as it excludes volatile items, advanced 1.33 percent, lending support to stable consumer prices, he said.
Garment prices rose 2.04 percent, while living costs increased 1.25 percent due to higher house repair and rent costs, the report said.
The wholesale price index (WPI), a measure of commercial production costs, increased 11.88 percent, as healthy demand boosted prices for raw materials and oil products, it said.
In the first eight months of the year, the CPI advanced 1.64 percent, while the WPI grew 7.34 percent, the report said.
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