DGBAS shrugs off deflation concerns as CPI falls 0.76%By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterThe consumer price index (CPI) last month contracted 0.76 percent from a year earlier, as the COVID-19 pandemic reduced transportation, recreation and food costs, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. Photo: Clare Cheng, Taipei TimesThe index gained 0.79 percent from a month earlier and picked up 0.39 percent after seasonal adjustments, Chiou added. Core CPI, a more reliable long-term tracker of consumer price movements because it excludes volatile items, rose 0.13 percent. The wholesale price index (WPI), a measure of production costs, dropped 10.36 percent, easing from a revised 12.15 percent decline a month earlier, the DGBAS said. For the first six months of the year, the CPI edged down 0.22 percent and the WPI fell 8.2 percent, it said.

Source: Taipei Times July 07, 2020 15:56 UTC