The consumer price index (CPI) in Taiwan last month declined 0.32 percent from a year earlier as vegetable, fruit and other goods prices fell significantly, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said yesterday.
Food costs, which comprise 25 percent of the reading, dropped 3.86 percent, due mainly to cheaper vegetables, fruits and eggs, the agency said in a report.
In the first 10 months of this year, the CPI edged up 0.59 percent, it added.
In related news, the wholesale price index, a measure of commercial production costs, last month advanced 1.58 percent from a year earlier, the agency said, citing import prices rising 6.4 percent in US dollar terms, while export prices increased 4.32 percent on the back of higher oil and raw material prices.
Source: taipeitimes.com
