Wed, Apr 10, 2024 page12

• Consumer price index down from February

  PANDEMIC EFFECT: Prices for basic goods have increased faster since the outbreak of COVID-19 than before the virus hit, and dining out costs might remain stubbornly high

  • By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter, with CNA
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  The consumer price index (CPI) last month grew 2.14 percent year-on-year, slowing from a 3.08 percent annual increase in February, as the holiday effect on consumer prices ended but other costs continued to rise, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.

  The inflationary gauge is likely to remain at a similar level this month after a 2.34 percent annual increase in the first quarter, DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) said.

  “Consumer prices decelerated noticeably from the peaks seen over the Lunar New Year holiday,” Tsao said.

  

  People select food at a buffet restaurant in Taipei yesterday. Taiwan’s consumer price index grew 2.14 percent year-on-year last month, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said yesterday.

  Photo: CNA

  This month’s electricity rate hikes would add 0.18 percentage points to the CPI reading, which would rise 2.03 percent this year, he said.

  Inflationary pressure is easing, but the CPI is still unable to return to the central bank’s 2 percent target, Tsao said.

  Healthcare costs, which usually take a backseat in driving CPI, outpaced other consumption categories last month, increasing 3.19 percent after the Ministry of Health and Welfare removed the limit on registration fee adjustments at medical facilities, the DGBAS said.

  The authorities also raised drug prices and copayment rates, it said.

  Food costs rose 2.86 percent year-on-year, the DGBAS said, adding that prices of processed food products rose 4.1 percent and dining out costs grew 3.49 percent.

  Core CPI, a more reliable long-term price tracker because it does not include volatile items such as energy and vegetables, last month rose 2.13 percent year-on-year, down from a 2.89 percent increase in February, the DGBAS said.

  The producer price index (PPI), which measures price movements from a seller’s perspective, increased 0.34 percent, returning to positive growth for the second month in a row, the DGBAS said, citing increases in international oil and gas prices, and the New Taiwan dollar’s depreciation against the US dollar.

  Cumulatively, the CPI increased 2.34 percent in the first quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, while the PPI remained in the contraction zone, declining 0.08 percent, the DGBAS said.

  In related news, prices for basic goods have risen faster since the COVID-19 pandemic hit than before it, a central bank research report said.

  The report found that from 2013 to 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19, Taiwan’s core CPI grew about 1 percent every 17.19 months, but accelerated to about 1 percent every 7.98 months from 2021 to last year.

  The central bank attributed the faster increase in core CPI to the pandemic’s disruption of supply chains, geopolitical tensions and climate change, although the report did not elaborate on how those factors affected Taiwan specifically.

  Core CPI rose 1.33 percent in 2021, 2.61 percent in 2022 and 2.58 percent last year, compared with headline CPI increases of 1.97 percent in 2021, 2.95 percent in 2022 and 2.49 percent last year, the central bank said.

  It said that many consumers have been skeptical of those numbers, and attributed some of those doubts to a steady rise in dining-out expenses, a common expense for many Taiwanese.

  Increases in eating out costs are often resistant to change and could remain stubbornly high, it said.

  Taiwan’s CPI could rise 2.14 percent and its core CPI could increase 2.03 percent this year, largely due to an average 11 percent increase in electricity rates, the central bank said.
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