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.
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