The government statistics office has announced that Taiwan’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) saw its largest decline in 62 months during January.
The CPI was 0.94% lower than it had been in January last year. Analysts believe that a major fall in the price of oil has skewed the latest figures. An official with the statistics office said Thursday that if energy costs are left out of the equation, the CPI for January would have actually risen 0.64%.
The timing of the Lunar New Year is another factor thought to be behind the falling CPI. The holiday, a time when the cost of services tends to go up, fell in January last year. This year, however, the Lunar New Year will be observed in February. The statistics office says that it is therefore likely that the CPI will rise again in February.
In related news, the statistics office also announced that the Wholesale Price Index for January declined by 7.57%, as prices for oil, chemicals, and base metals all fell. Domestic sales, imports, and exports also saw some of the biggest declines in recent years during January.