TAIPEI: Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) fell for a fall year in 2015 for the first time since 2009 when the global financial crisis derailed the country’s economy, dragged down in large part by plummeting energy prices, government statistics showed Wednesday. The full-year CPI fell 0.31 percent, with big declines in the prices of fuel, electricity and natural gas exceeding increases in the prices of food and services.
The costs of fuels and lubricants fell 25 percent in 2015 from a year earlier while the costs of water, electricity and natural gas were down 12.47 percent, statistics released by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed.
Both categories account for about 3.5 percent of the overall CPI. Despite the CPI decline, the DGBAS said deflation was not a concern because core CPI, which excludes the prices of fruit, vegetables and energy, was up 0.79 percent in 2015.
“We still prefer to look at core CPI. Throughout last year, core CPI remained stable, so our view is that changes in domestic price levels have been stable and moderate,” said Tsai Yu-tai, deputy director of the DGBAS’s census department.
The DGBAS said that judging by recent economic performance and private sector demand and consumption, there are no major forces likely to drive price hikes this year.
The statistics agency predicted in November that the CPI would rise 0.84 percent in 2016, and its next estimate will be issued in February. Among the categories in which prices rose in 2015 was food, which accounts for 25 percent of the index.
Food prices were up 3.13 percent in 2015 from a year earlier, with the prices of meat, vegetables, fruit, and fish and seafood up 3.23 percent, 15.59 percent, 0.84 percent and 2.27 percent, respectively, according to DGBAS figures.
The prices of consumer goods were down 1.99 percent, but prices of services rose 0.96 percent, with the cost of dining out increasing by 2.25 percent from 2014. Housing prices, which had risen rapidly in previous years, fell by 1.14 percent year-on-year, the statistics showed.
In December, meanwhile, inflation was higher than in the same month in 2014 because of higher food prices, which were offset to some extent by declining fuel, electricity and consumer electronics prices, Yu said.
The CPI dropped 0.74 percent month-on-month in December, however, mainly due to a fall in winter vegetable prices, and also because of lower fuel costs and year-end clothing sales, according to the DGBAS.
As for inflation in other countries, Japan saw its CPI increase 0.8 percent, the United States 0.1 percent, China 1.4 percent and Hong Kong 3.1 percent in the first 11 months of last year, while Singapore’s CPI fell 0.5 percent over the same period, the DGBAS said.
South Korea’s inflation rate was 0.7 percent for the whole of 2015, it added. The wholesale price index (WPI) in December fell 7.06 percent from a year ago, the 16th consecutive month that it has declined. For all of 2015, the WPI fell 8.82 percent from 2014, DGBAS statistics showed.
