CPI up 1.97% year-on-year in November

Taiwan's consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.97 percent in November from a year earlier, the biggest increase since April, but was down 0.43 percent from October, government statistics showed Tuesday.

The main factors that drove inflation higher were year-on-year increases in the prices of vegetables, fruit, aquatic products, meat and fuel, the data from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed.

Vegetable prices were up 37.53 percent from November 2015, while the cost of dining out and higher water rates also contributed to the rise in the CPI, the data showed.

Those increases were offset slightly by lower prices of gas, electricity, and consumer electronics as compared with the same month last year, according the data.

The core CPI, which excludes vegetables, fruit and energy, rose 0.84 percent year-on-year in November, the DGBAS data showed.

However, the CPI was 0.43 percent lower in November than in October as the prices of vegetables, clothing and fuel dropped month-on-month, but that was offset somewhat by slightly higher fruit prices, the DBGAS said.

Its data showed that vegetable and fruit prices were up 37.53 percent and 9.56 percent year-on-year in November, respectively, pushing up overall food prices 6.42 percent.

Meanwhile, living expenses fell 0.37 percent from a year earlier, while fuel prices were up 2.91 percent, the biggest year-on-year growth in 29 months.

For a household whose monthly spending totaled about NT$60,000 (US$1,879), the 1.97 percent increase in the CPI would have boosted its spending by NT$1,182 from a year earlier, the DGBAS said.

Such a household would have spent an additional NT$697 in fruit purchases, NT$171 in vegetable purchases and NT$44 in fuel purchases in November, according to the government agency.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel