Taiwan’s Inflation Eases to 2.33% as Producer Prices Climb 19.66% and Reserves Dip

By The Edge Research Team

Taiwan’s consumer inflation eased to 2.33% in October from a year earlier, while producer prices accelerated to 19.66%, official figures published on 5 November showed.

The two numbers point in different directions for Taiwanese households and businesses. In The Edge’s reading, the cost pressure is building upstream rather than at the till: producer and import prices are up 19.66% and 26.72% on the year, while consumer inflation has stayed inside a narrow band since June. Separately, the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) said foreign exchange reserves fell $4.3 billion in October to $596.4 billion.

The consumer price index rose 0.06% from September, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS). Measured against October 2025, the producer, import and export indices all rose far faster than consumer prices.

Consumer inflation slows, but monthly momentum firms

October’s annual rate was 0.40 percentage points below September’s 2.73% as first published. It was the second lowest of the five monthly readings from June, above only August’s 2.04%.

The seasonally adjusted monthly change moved the other way. It rose to 0.20% in October, from 0.17% in September as first published. In August, the seasonally adjusted gain was 0.13%.

The average for January to October also moved up, to 1.98% from 1.94% over January to September as first published.

October 2026 price indices (in %)

Month is the change from September, year the change from October 2025, and the last column the January to October average against the same period of 2025; import and export indices in US dollar terms.

Producer prices accelerate to 19.66%

Producer prices rose 1.48% from September and 19.66% from a year earlier. The annual rate was 1.54 points above September’s 18.12% as first published.

The acceleration is steeper over a longer span. Since June, when the first published rate was 15.10%, the annual pace has climbed 4.56 points.

The gap between producer and consumer inflation widened to 17.33 points, from 15.39 points in September on first-published figures. Over January to October, producer prices averaged 11.12% above the same period of 2025, against 10.16% for January to September as first published.

Consumer and producer prices, year on year (in %)

2026, each month as first published in its own release; later releases revise earlier months.

Import prices overtake export prices

In US dollar terms, import prices rose 1.48% on the month and 26.72% on the year. Export prices rose 0.49% on the month and 26.38% on the year.

That puts the annual rise in import prices 0.34 points above the rise in export prices. In each of the four months from June to September, export prices had risen faster, by 1.69 points in September as first published.

On The Edge’s calculation, export prices relative to import prices were 0.27% lower than a year earlier. Over the month alone, the same ratio fell 0.98%, because import prices rose three times as fast as export prices.

From January to October, export prices still lead. Export prices averaged 18.66% above a year earlier, against 15.22% for import prices.

Import and export prices in US dollars, year on year (in %)

2026, each month as first published in its own release; later releases revise earlier months.

Reserves slip below $600 billion

Reserves stood at $596.4 billion at the end of October, down $4.3 billion from a month earlier. The decline was 0.72%.

In September, reserves had fallen $1.2 billion to $600.7 billion, as set out after that release.

Since the end of August, reserves have fallen $5.5 billion, or 0.91%. August itself had brought a rise of $7.6 billion.

The bank named three factors behind the October change: returns on the investment of its reserves, movements in major currencies against the dollar, and its own operations to maintain order in the foreign exchange market. It cited the same three factors for August and September.

Foreign exchange reserves at month end (in $ billions)

2026; change against the previous month end.

Foreign investors’ holdings of Taiwanese stocks and bonds, valued at market prices on the day, together with their New Taiwan dollar deposits, came to $1,742.6 billion. The bank put that at an estimated 292% of reserves, down from 321% at the end of September.

The holdings fell $184.6 billion, or 9.58%, in the month. Because the measure is valued at market prices and converted into dollars, it moves with share and bond prices and the exchange rate as well as with investors’ flows.

The holdings now exceed reserves by $1,146.2 billion. At the end of September the excess was $1,326.5 billion, as set out at the time.

Foreign holdings of Taiwanese stocks, bonds and deposits (in $ billions)

2026; holdings at market value plus New Taiwan dollar deposits, as published; excess is holdings minus reserves.

What to watch:

4 December 2026: the central bank’s end-November reserves.

8 December 2026: the statistics agency’s November price indices, covering consumer, producer, import and export prices.

Figures are from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics’ price index releases for October, September, August, July and June 2026 (5 November, 7 October, 8 September, 6 August and 7 July 2026) and from the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan)’s reserves releases No. 182, No. 159 and No. 144 (5 November, 5 October and 4 September 2026); changes, gaps and ratios not attributed to a source are The Edge’s calculations.

Sources: Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan), The Edge.

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