The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday urged the government to deal with inflation seriously, not to only report positive news to the public.
People have felt the repercussions of inflation, NPP legislative caucus whip Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said, adding that the government should be pragmatic and statistics-based in its approach.
“We have reminded Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) that the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics needs the results of a family income and expenditure survey to accurately calculate a base price index, as inflation can be underestimated if the wrong price index is used. Skewed statistics will also mislead the central bank to only give optimistic inflation estimates,” he said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Inflation is hitting hardest families who have the smallest amount of disposable income, Chiu said.
An Executive Yuan survey of this year’s consumer price index — a gauge of fluctuations in price for daily staples, such as rice, flour, pork, sugar, cooking oil and others — showed that it rose to 3.31 in September, from 1.99 in January.
The Council of Agriculture, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Fair Trade Commission have administrative tools to stabilize consumer prices, but the government keeps telling people that inflation remains in a reasonable range, he said.
NPP Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) said that franchises McDonald’s and Din Tai Fung have announced price increases for some food items by the end of the month to reflect rising operating costs.
An NPP survey conducted last month showed that 92.3 percent of respondents said that they felt the effects of inflation, especially higher prices for produce, daily staples and gasoline.
Nearly 57 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the government’s monitoring of consumer prices, she said.
A consumer confidence index published by National Central University’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development fell from August to last month, meaning that the public has a negative outlook on price stability, she said.
“An end to soaring consumer prices does not seem likely in the short term, and the government has had only limited success in curbing the increase,” Wang said.
Housing prices in 25 districts across the nation rose between the third quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, she said, citing Ministry of the Interior data.
NPP deputy caucus whip Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) criticized the Ministry of Economic Affairs for asking major retail stores to set up a “fair-priced goods section” in outlets as an approach to inflation.
“Reining in inflation is the government’s responsibility, but it has shifted its responsibility to retailers, who are asked to absorb the financial loss themselves,” she said.
Chen quoted central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) as saying that the rise in prices was in part the result of retailers trying to make up losses incurred during COVID-19 restrictions, while other retailers deliberately raised prices.
Despite higher produce prices, Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) still has no plan to release stocks of vegetables to adjust market prices, she said, adding that the Fair Trade Commission only cracks down on illegal practices after they are reported.
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