The nation's central bank may be forced to raise interest rates for the first time in four years, traders and economists said, citing a widening rate disparity with the US and the possibility that record oil prices will accelerate inflation.
Speculation about rates continued after the central bank issued a statement on its Web site, denying a newspaper report that its officials said they are under pressure to raise rates.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times reported Sunday that pressure is being placed on the central bank to raise interest rates, citing unidentified central bank officials.
Still, the country may need higher rates to prevent local investment from flowing to higher-yielding US-dollar securities after two rate increases by the US Federal Reserve, said economists such as Lucas Lee at Barits International Securities Corp (
Taiwan's benchmark government bond dropped yesterday on prospects of faster inflation. Monetary policy is decided at quarterly meetings, the central bank said in its statement. The next quarterly meeting is scheduled for late next month and hasn't been announced.
"The bank's statement didn't have much impact on existing expectations that the central bank may raise its interest rate by [between] 0.125 to 0.25 percentage points by year-end," said Jeremy Tang, a bond trader at Taipei-based Entrust Securities Co (
The US increased its key interest rate for overnight loans between banks by a quarter percentage point in June and again by the same amount this month, taking the rate to 1.5 percent.
Taiwan's key rediscount rate is at a record low 1.375 percent. The nation's central bank cut its key rate 15 times since December 2000. In 2001, the bank matched all 11 rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve.
The 2.375 percent bond maturing in March 2014 dropped 0.0614, or NT$61.40 per NT$100,000 face amount, to 95.5648. The 10-year yield rose 0.8 percentage point to 2.914 percent, according to Gretai Securities Market, the nation's over-the-counter market.
The nation's statistics bureau raised its 2004 inflation forecast to 1.5 percent from 0.8 percent on Friday. Taiwan has had three years of annual declines in consumer prices.
The government also lifted its 2004 economic growth forecast to 5.87 percent from 5.4 percent, after gross domestic product rose 7.7 percent in the second quarter.
The full-year forecast expansion would be the fastest since 1997.
"The central bank may match half of the US rate increases by raising its rates by 25 basis points in December, reflecting the impact of high oil costs without choking off the island's growth," said Jerry Ho, a currency trader at International Bank of Taipei (
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained