Inflation rate slows to 14-month low

Consumer prices climbed 2.39 percent from a year earlier, less than the 3.1 percent gain in September, the statistics bureau said in Taipei today. That compared with a 1.3 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of seven economists.

Central Bank of China cut rates in September and October, joining counterparts in the U.S, Europe and parts of Asia striving to stem the economic damage from the global financial crisis. The island’s jobless rate climbed to a three-year high in September, exports orders grew at the weakest pace in six years and factory production dropped.

“It’s quite obvious the central bank has shifted its focus to boosting the economy from taming inflation,” Alan Liao, an economist at Chinatrust Commercial Bank, said before the report was released. “Recent declines in Taiwan’s industrial output and exports suggest the central bank will likely keep its loosening policy.”

The report was released after the close of trading on the stock exchange. The benchmark TAIEX index slipped 0.3 percent to 4,978.26. Taiwan’s currency rose for a third day, up as much as 0.6 percent to NT$32.668 per U.S. dollar.

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