CEPD official calls for new pay rise

This article was published by the Macroview Weekly on August 1, 2007. It reports that officials at the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) recently called for a pay rise by state-owned and private enterprises so as to “mitigate the misery of the public” about rising consumer prices.

CEPD officials said that the economy has registered a 4-percent increase over the past few years and a lot of private enterprises have reported handsome profits.

Both public and private enterprises should consider a pay rise to raise the “happiness index”, officials said.

The appeal was made against the background that this year's misery index, a combination of the unemployment rate and the consumer price index on an annual basis, could break 6 percent. If a typhoon hits Taiwan, the misery index could surge even higher.

Between 2001 and 2003, Taiwan's misery index stood at between 3 percent and 4 percent, but the figure broke 6 percent in 2004 and 2005. Unemployment in 2004 and 2005 stood at 4.4 percent and 4.13 percent, respectively, mainly because of typhoons. Consumer price increases in 2004 and 2005 were 1.6 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.

The misery index in 2005 hit 6.43 percent, a new high over the past decade.

For 2007, the CEPD has set the goal of an unemployment rate below 4 percent and a consumer price increase below 2 percent, so that the misery index can be curbed at below 6 percent.

Economic research institutes have recently unveiled their predictions on consumer price increases for 2007.

The Chunghua Institution for Economic Research predicted that the consumer price index (CPI) in the 3rd and 4th quarters will be 2.1 percent and 2 percent, respectively, and the annual increase of the CPI in the second half of the year will break 2 percent.