MNI BRIEF: Taiwan's Jan CPI Accelerated To 3.04%

Taiwan's Consumer Price Index increased at a 3.04% y/y pace in January, with the acceleration for a third consecutive month reflecting base effect issues with the timing of the Lunar New Year festival in 2022, according to data released by the National Statistics Department on Thursday.

Prices for vegetables and eggs went up 28.25% and 15.74%, respectively. Communication equipment and fruit dropped 8.82% and 4.01%. Core CPI, which does not include fuel and food, increased 2.98%. Today’s CPI increase follows a 2.71% y/y increase in December, and comes after Taiwan's economy shrunk by 0.89% in Q4 2022.

Taiwan’s central bank raised its policy rate by 12.5bp at its last meeting in December, with some board members arguing for a larger rate hike to combat inflation. The bank forecasts inflation and core inflation rates to come down to 1.88% and 1.87% in 2023.