Consumer prices last month rose 2.62 percent from a year earlier — the seventh time it climbed above the 2 percent alert level last year — as fuel, food and other consumption categories all became more expensive, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The statistics agency reiterated that inflation would taper off after the Lunar New Year, even though CPI readings for the entire second half of last year defied its predictions of a slowdown.
“The inflationary pressures are indeed building up, but could have plateaued last quarter and would ease off this year quarter on quarter,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) said, citing international research bodies.
Photo: CNA
Government officials have painted ongoing inflation as “transient and imported” due mainly to spikes in fuel and raw material prices, although almost all sectors — from wholesalers to retailers, restaurants, garment makers and property developers — have raised prices to reflect soaring cost burdens.
The consumer price index would stay above the 2 percent mark this quarter, but would trend down thereafter, Tsao said, mainly due to base effects.
Transportation prices climbed 5.08 percent on the back of a 19.55 percent increase in international fuel prices and a 14.08 percent upswing in domestic airfares, it said.
Food costs gained 4.23 percent, as bad weather pushed up prices for fruit by 21.61 percent and eggs by 11.75 percent, it said, adding that meat prices grew 5.49 percent and vegetable prices rose 3.36 percent.
Nelson Chang (張安平), chairman of Taiwan Cement Corp (台灣水泥) and chief executive of L’Hotel de Chine Group (雲朗觀光), yesterday said that he could not figure out why governments around the world refused to recognize inflation and reverse their loose monetary policy, the cause of stock rallies and inflation.
“I don’t like the current economic cycle where everything grows more expensive — including financial assets, real-estate properties, raw materials and labor costs, while coronavirus infections escalate,” Chang told a public function in Taipei.
In the meantime, labor and material shortages persist, because people do not want to work, he said.
Recreational and educational facilities hiked prices by 2.03 percent, while garment makers increased prices by 1.57 percent, despite lackluster business, the DGBAS said.
Living costs rose 1.55 percent due to higher prices for house repair, household items and rents, it said.
The wholesale price index (WPI), a measure of production costs, increased 12.25 percent, it said.
For the whole of last year, CPI advanced 1.96 percent, the fastest in 13 years, while WPI grew 9.42 percent, the highest in 41 years, it said, attributing the pace to unfavorable bases.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
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