2022/05/07 03:00
FOOD, TRANSPORTATION: The cost of eating out and cooking at home have been affected by inflation, as the Ukraine war is likely to keep prices rising, an official said
By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporter
The nation’s consumer price index （CPI） increased 3.38 percent last month, mainly due to increases in vegetable, fruit and daily necessity prices, marking the fastest growth over the past nine years, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics （DGBAS） said yesterday.
It was the second consecutive month that the nation’s CPI surpassed 3 percent, and the ninth consecutive month that the index exceeded the 2 percent benchmark, the agency’s data showed.
Food prices rose 6.9 percent annually, with the costs of vegetables advancing 27 percent. Egg prices surged 21 percent because of bad weather, higher feeding costs and a low comparison base last year, the agency said, adding that the price of meat went up 5.9 percent.
The food and beverage index jumped 5.56 percent from a year earlier to 113, the highest over the past 12 months, the agency said.
Transportation prices climbed 5.01 percent on the back of a 14.92 percent increase in international energy prices and a 5.59 percent price rise in vehicles and scooter maintenance, the data showed.
Households spent an average NT$2,704 more on food and daily necessities, with an additional NT$423 being spent on eating out, NT$287 more on vegetables and NT$340 more on fuel, the data showed.
Households with lower incomes felt the pinch of rising inflation as food costs consist of a larger share of spending, the agency said.
Inflation for households with the lowest 20 percent of income rose 3.06 percent last month, lower than 2.88 percent for for those with the highest 20 percent of income, the agency’s data showed.
Even the core CPI, a more stable long-term price tracker that excludes price-volatile items such as vegetables and oil, last month showed a 2.53 percent increase, the highest over the past year, and cumulative core CPI grew 2.27 percent year-on-year for the first four months, the data showed.
Meanwhile, the average costs of 17 daily necessities considered essential by government — such as rice, flour, pork, chicken, eggs, sugar, milk and bread — rose 4.41 percent last month, the highest in 87 months, it showed.
Retail prices have been pushed up by the the war in Ukraine, and they are not likely to slow their rise in the near term, DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung （曹志弘） said, citing international research bodies.
It is possible that CPI growth would remain above 3 percent this month, although it should not be as high as last month, the likely peak in the second quarter, Tsao said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES