September CPI Rises 2.73% Year on Year, a 31-Month High, as Food Prices Climb at Their Fastest in a Year
Taipei — Taiwan's consumer price index rose 2.73 percent year on year in September, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) announced on October 7, the Central News Agency reported. The reading was up sharply from August's 2.05 percent, marking a 31-month high — the highest since February 2024 — and the fifth consecutive month above the 2 percent inflation alert line. The DGBAS releases the previous month's price data early each month, and the September report is the one households feel most directly for the third quarter.
Food prices led the increase, rising 2.64 percent from a year earlier, their fastest pace in a year. Heavy rain in central and southern Taiwan in August disrupted vegetable-growing areas, and higher farm-gate prices passed through to retail, pushing vegetable prices up by nearly 5 percent. The cost of dining out rose about 3 percent — above 3 percent for a fourth straight month — making it one of the increases households feel most directly. Elsewhere, transport and communication costs rose 4.07 percent, clothing 2.32 percent, housing 2.38 percent, education and entertainment 3.15 percent, and miscellaneous items 2.77 percent; healthcare posted the smallest gain, at 0.70 percent. On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices rose 0.13 percent from August, the slowest monthly pace since November 2025, a sign the monthly momentum is already slowing. The CPI basket covers seven broad groups — food, clothing, housing, transport and communication, healthcare, education and entertainment, and miscellaneous goods and services. Food carries a heavy weighting and is bought most often, so its movements shape how inflation feels day to day; dining-out prices, in turn, bundle together ingredient, rent and labor costs, and serve as a snapshot of the pricing pressure on restaurants and food stalls.
The DGBAS expects price pressure to ease in October as vegetable supply recovers, and sees the subsequent trend as mild and limited. Still, with the CPI above the alert line for five months running, and food and dining costs central to household budgets, prices will remain a key livelihood issue in the fourth quarter, and the central bank's interest-rate decisions will draw corresponding market attention.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 台湾夜市的小吃摊商，Banzai Hiroaki 摄，CC BY 2.0（Wikimedia Commons）
