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Dear Readers,

Welcome to the Monthly Analysis Report on eRepublik Economic Indicators, published by the eTaiwan Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS). This report comprehensively collects and analyzes key economic data across the entire eRepublik, aiming to provide the public with a window to understand the current economic landscape.

The core content of the report includes monthly changes in major indicators such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Core CPI, currency exchange rates, employment income levels and more. Not only are the specific figures presented, but analyses are also provided on the reasons behind the changes and trend projections. In addition, starting from this month, weights will be introduced into CPI calculations to more accurately reflect price changes.

We will continue to bring you the latest edition of the report every month. Your feedback on any potential oversights is welcome, as we strive to improve the quality of our analyses together.

It is our hope that this report will deepen your understanding of the eRepublik economy. Enjoy your read!

If you would like to read a PDF version of the full report, please click here to Google Drive Document.

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Editor：Ena Mizukami

I. Summary of Changes in May 2024:
(1) CPI increased by 0.74% in May (compared to the previous month, MoM).
(2) Core CPI increased by 1.60% in May (MoM).
(3) The exchange rate for Euro: Gold : Currency in April was 1 Euro: 148.77 Gold : 148,407 cc.
(4) Regular Salary and Real Salary decreased by 1.99% and decreased by 2.71% in May (MoM).

II. Details of Price Changes compared to the previous month
(1) The CPI for May increased by 0.74%. The main reason was that the declines in the prices of moving tickets and houses offset the increases in the other three categories.

A. Changes in the 5 major categories:

i. Foods increased by 2.58%, primarily due to the Spring Break driving up demand for wellness, as well as continued increases in food raw material prices caused by VIP shops.
ii. Weapons increased by 0.26%. mainly driven by the rebound in ground battle demand. The Ghost Boosters left over from this month's Spring Break increased players' motivation to gain Protector Point.
iii. Moving Tickets increased by 6.85%, mainly due to the Spring Break boosting demand for tickets.
iv. Houses decreased by 7.43%, primarily because after the Spring Break ended, the validity period of houses opened by players during the event had not yet expired, leading to lower market demand.
v. Aircraft Weapons decreased by 1.10%, mainly due to the Spring Break increasing players' demand for ground battles, resulting in lower demand for air combat.



B. Among the 29 sub-items, 14 items experienced price increases while 15 items saw decreases. The sub-items with significant changes are as follows:
i. Items with Price Increases: Q1 Food rose 4.11%, Q2 Food rose 3.25%, Q5 Moving Tickets rose 8.40%, Q6 Food rose 3.08%.
ii. Items with Price Decreases: Q4 Weapons fell 15.33%, Q2 Houses fell 11.98%, Q5 Houses fell 11.73%, Q2 Weapons fell 11.53%.
iii. Observing by the characters of items, housing demand showed a drastic decline, while demand for food and moving tickets increased. The increase in demand for ground and air combat weapons was limited.
iv. Observing by purchase frequency, prices of everyday core consumer goods (Core CPI) increased by 1.60%, mainly due to the significant increase in food prices.



(2) Comparison of Weekly Conditions in May 2024: Based on the price changes in each week, the CPI and Core CPI showed an increase in the second week, followed by a declining trend in subsequent weeks. This was due to the end of the Spring Break, leading to a return of prices for various goods to normal levels.



A. Foods: The CPI for food grew in the second and third weeks, mainly because event demand boosted food demand. However, in the last week, as the effects of the Spring Break ended, the food CPI saw its first decline.



B. Weapons: Due to a significant decrease in weapon demand, except for the second week when Spring Break's Ghost Boosters caused the weapons CPI to rebound, the weapons CPI continued to show negative growth in the remaining three weeks. The trend was similar for the targeted Q7 weapons.



C. Moving Tickets: The CPI for moving tickets saw an increase in the first and second weeks, influenced by the Spring Break, with Q5 and Q4 moving tickets seeing significant increases of 35.58% and 29.80% in the first week. However, as the Spring Break ended, the moving tickets CPI gradually fell back to normal levels.



D. Houses: The CPI for houses declined across all four weeks. This was because the validity period for houses used by players during the Spring Break missions had not yet expired, leading to a continuous decline in housing demand.



E. Aircraft Weapons: The CPI for aircraft weapons rose in the second and fourth weeks, influenced by the Spring Break and the event Balloon Bonanza, while it declined slightly in the first and third weeks.



III. Details of Exchange Rate Changes

(1) Gold Price: In May, the average exchange rate was 1 gold : 997.562 cc, a decrease of 0.55% compared to the April average, with no significant fluctuations. The end-of-month exchange rate in May was 1 gold : 975.290 cc, a decrease of 2.77% compared to the beginning of the month. This was due to an increase in gold selling during the Roulette event and Balloon Bonanza activity at the end of the month, leading to an increased supply and a subsequent decline in gold market prices.



(2) Game Token: In May, the average exchange rate was 1 Token: 14,840.657 cc, an increase of 4.08% compared to the April average. The end-of-month exchange rate was 1 Token: 15,165.054 cc, an increase of 6.36% compared to the beginning of April. The main reason was that the events led to an increase in money supply, subsequently increasing players' motivation to purchase Tokens, resulting in a steady rise in Token prices.



(3) Euro (IRL Situation): In May, the average exchange rate was 1 Euro: 34.943 TWD, an increase of 0.69% compared to the April average. The end-of-month exchange rate was 1 Euro: 35.28 TWD, an increase of 1.66% compared to the beginning of May. This was mainly because the Eurozone's first-quarter seasonally adjusted GDP growth rate increased by 0.3% quarter-on-quarter, recovering from the negative growth in the previous two quarters, with an annual growth rate of 0.4%, meeting market expectations, resulting in small exchange rate fluctuations. However, the New Taiwan Dollar was affected by the continued strength of the US Dollar Index and persistently high US Treasury yields, leading to an outflow of hot money and a significant depreciation in the foreign exchange market, resulting in a relatively higher NTD/EUR exchange rate.



IV. Details of Salary Changes

(1) The average Regular Salary for May 2024 was 5,802.97 cc, an decrease of 1.99% compared to the average of April 2024. The end-of-month Regular Salary for May was 5,296.77 cc, an decrease of 10.54% compared to the beginning of April 2024. The main reason was that the Spring Break led to a surge in demand for housing and population-related tasks, resulting in a significant increase in salaries. However, as the Spring Break tasks ended, salaries declined back to normal levels.

(2) The average Real Salary for May 2024 was 5,611.72 cc, a decrease of 2.71% compared to the average of April 2024. The end-of-month Real Salary for May 2024 was 5,192.04 cc, an decrease of 9.98% compared to the beginning of the April 2024. The primary reason remains the same as mentioned above. However, the rise in CPI also contributed to the decline in Real Salary.



V. Release Overview
(1) This publication will be released regularly on the 5th of every month.
(2) The English/Chinese Version of the summary of mainly index changes for March 2024 is scheduled to be released on June 9, 2024 (Day 6,046).
(3) Future publications will only include a “Summary of Changes” and charts. For detailed content, please refer to the complete version in the Google Cloud document.

VI. Calculation Method :
(1) Item Classification: Items are categorized into 5 major categories: food, weapons, moving tickets, houses, and aircraft weapons. Each category is further divided into 7 sub-items (Quality for food and weapons) and 5 sub-items (Quality for moving tickets, houses, and aircraft weapons), totaling 29 items.
(2) Price Calculation:
A. Consumer Price Index (CPI): CPI calculation adopts the Fisher price index, which is the geometric mean of the Laspeyres price index and the Paasche price index. The total amount standard is the total quantity of items among the 30 lowest global prices. The average is the weighted average price of items among the 30 lowest global prices.
B. Core CPI: The Core CPI excludes items with high variability and low frequency of use. It currently utilizes the geometric average of the CPI for Q1 to Q7 food, Q7 weapons, Q5 moving tickets, Q1 to Q2 houses, and CPI for aircraft weapons in Q1 and Q5.
C. The current CPI weights (i.e., the frequency of item purchases) can be referenced in Table 6.
(3) Exchange Rate:
A. Gold : The gold exchange rate for the lowest 10 rates in Monetary market at 6 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) each day.
B. Token: The token exchange rate for the lowest 50 Game Token market prices at 6 a.m. each day.
C. Euro: The euro exchange rate at 6 a.m. PT each day from RTER (rter.info).".
(4) Salary Calculation:
A. Regular Salary: The average value of the gross price of the top 30 salaries in the market at 6 a.m. each day.
B. Real Salary: Real salary considers the influence of prices, calculated as
“daily regular salary / daily CPI * 100”.
(5) As this publication is being issued for the first time, explanations are adjusted to the front for clarity. In the future, these explanations will be moved to the back for ease of reference.

VII. CPI Based on March 1, 2024: Starting from March 2024 (data period), the price index is calculated using the aforementioned price items, with March 1, 2024, as the base period (i.e., the average index on that day is set to 100).

VIII. Appendices
Table 1. Consumer Price Index Change Analysis (May 2024)
Table 2. Reference for Base Period Prices
Table 3. Daily Exchange Rate Change (May 2024)
Table 4. Daily Salary Change (May 2024)
Table 5. Daily Consumer Price Index Change (May 2024) (Please read it in Google drive Document)
Table 6. Reference Table for Weightage of Each Item (May 2024)