STABILIZATION:The consumer price index rose 0.9 percent as rises in fruit prices slowed. Without the rise in fruit prices, the CPI would have risen only 0.14 percent

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 06, 2016
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

The consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.9 percent last month from a year earlier, its slowest gain in five months, as hikes in fruit prices eased, although they remained the fastest in more than a decade, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.

The latest CPI data indicated benign inflation as food costs continued to advance more rapidly than other consumer items, suggesting heavier price burdens for low-income earners.

“Overall consumer prices have stabilized as evidenced by the smaller than 1 percent increase in the CPI reading,” DGBAS Deputy Director Tsai Yu-tai (蔡鈺泰) told a news conference in Taipei.

The inflationary gauge has hovered near the 2 percent alarm level since February due to drastic rises in vegetable and fruit prices, as bad weather from the winter and two typhoons last year continued to disrupt supply, Tsai said.     [FULL  STORY]