The nation’s consumer price index (CPI) increased 2.03 percent year-on-year last month, mainly due to increases in food and fruit prices, as well as dining-out costs, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
It was the second consecutive month that the nation’s CPI surpassed the central bank’s 2 percent target, but the inflationary gauge decelerated from the previous month’s 2.32 percent, the agency’s data showed.
Food prices rose 4.34 percent annually, with the costs of fruit growing 25.26 percent. Meat prices rose 4.46 percent, and those for cereal products such as bread and cakes grew 3.38 percent, the agency said in a report.
Photo: CNA
Dining-out costs grew 3.48 percent from a year earlier, above the 3 percent mark for more than six consecutive months and the highest increase over the past 13 months, the agency said.
As Taiwanese prefer eating out, this still-high spending renders a public perception that consumer prices are still rising, it added.
On a positive note, transportation and communications prices dropped 0.76 percent from a year earlier on the back of a 3.74 percent decrease in international energy prices and a 2.13 percent price fall in communication fees, while rents increased 2.4 percent year-on-year, the smallest increase in the past 12 months, the report said.
Still, inflation for households in the lowest 20 percent of income rose 2.26 percent last month, higher than the 2.09 percent for those with medium income and 1.88 percent for those with the highest 20 percent of income, DGBAS data showed.
Households with lower incomes felt the pinch of rising inflation as food costs comprise a larger share of spending, the agency said.
Core CPI, a more stable long-term price tracker that excludes price-volatile items such as vegetables and oil, last month increased 1.66 percent, below the 2 percent mark for 13 consecutive months, which the agency said was an indication that domestic prices remain stable.
In the first four months of this year, CPI grew 2.15 percent from the same period last year and cumulative core CPI rose 1.64 percent, the report said.
Meanwhile, the producer price index (PPI) last month rose 0.93 percent year-on-year, thanks to price increases in agricultural products, fuel and electronic components, the report said. In the first four months, the cumulative PPI grew 3.02 percent from the same period a year ago, it said.
The DGBAS said it sees no obvious risk of rising prices in Taiwan in the short term due to the US tariff policy and expects the recent surge in the New Taiwan dollar to affect import prices, but the effect on the CPI is expected to emerge in one to two quarters, the agency said.
It is possible that CPI growth would be below 2 percent this month in light of the recent fall in international crude oil prices, it added.
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