The consumer price index (CPI) last month showed a 1.82 percent rise from a year earlier, the lowest in eight months and below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food costs held relatively stable, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The inflationary gauge is likely to hover below the 2 percent level going forward, in the absence of major abnormal surprises, despite Typhoon Krathon earlier this month and the recent rise in international oil prices, DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) said.
“The crop damage wreacked by Typhoon Krathon is not as serious as that left by typhoons a year earlier,” Tsao said.
Photo: CNA
Food costs last month grew a moderate 3 percent, as fruit prices rose 17.37 percent, but vegetable prices decreased 4.21 percent and egg prices declined 15.49 percent, the DGBAS said.
The core CPI, a more reliable long-term price tracker because it strips out volatile items, increased 1.79 percent, virtually unchanged from one month earlier and affirming a stable consumer price trend, the statistics agency said, adding that the CPI value after seasonal adjustments gained 0.38 percent.
However, the public might still feel the pinch because dining out prices climbed 2.98 percent, rents increased 2.5 percent, and medicine and healthcare prices rose 2.61 percent from a year earlier, Tsai said.
Shelter prices also expanded 2.39 percent, attributable to more expensive home maintenance costs, as well as electricity rate hikes from April onward, while education and entertainment prices added 1.79 percent, DGBAS data showed.
The producer price index (PPI), which measures the price movements of goods from a seller’s perspective, shrank 0.33 percent year-on-year last month, owing to price corrections for international fuel, food and electronic components, the agency said.
In the first nine months of this year, the CPI grew 2.26 percent, while the PPI rose by 1.47 percent from the same period of last year, it said.
After several years flying high as Asia’s best Nvidia Corp proxy, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is increasingly vying with other artificial intelligence (AI) stocks for investor attention. Stock traders are chasing a wider array of beneficiaries as mainstream usage of AI creates demand for hardware beyond the most-advanced chips TSMC makes for Nvidia. Subthemes from the deepening memory crunch to advances in robotics are also luring bids. At the same time, investment caps on single stocks are pushing funds to diversify, while retail investors long familiar with TSMC through its US depositary receipts are being offered a broader set of
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
TECH RELIANCE: Growth is increasingly reflecting an unequal K-shaped distribution, where technology sectors outperform and other industries struggle, an expert said Standard Chartered Bank has significantly raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth to 9.5 percent this year, up from 7.6 percent previously, citing surging artificial intelligence (AI) demand driving exports, semiconductor production and investment. The upgrade reflects a sustained AI supercycle that continues to fuel demand for advanced chips and technology infrastructure, which form the backbone of Taiwan’s exports, the bank said in a report this week. “We raise our 2026 growth forecast to reflect a much stronger-than-expected first-quarter GDP figure,” Standard Chartered senior economist for greater China and Asia Tommy Wu (胡東安) said in the report. Driven largely by a 35.3 percent
RSS