The state-owned Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) announced yesterday it plans to raise its NT dollar interest rates tomorrow, following the central bank's lead earlier this week.
A range of fixed savings rates will be increased by between 0.2 percentage points and 0.255 percentage points, while fixed deposit rates will be raised by between 0.05 percentage points and 0.265 percentage points, beginning tomorrow, the Bank of Taiwan said in a statement.
The rate for one-year fixed deposits will rise to 2.515 percent from 2.260 percent, and the rate for one-year fixed savings will be raised to 2.540 percent from 2.290 percent, the statement said.
Other major commercial and state-controlled banks, including Chang Hwa Bank (
The Bank of Taiwan attributed its rate increases to the central bank's move last week to raise benchmark interest rates by a higher-than-expected 25 basis points in a bid to dampen inflationary pressures.
On Thursday, the central bank lifted the discount rate on 10-day loans to 3.125 percent and sharply increased the required reserve ratio on foreign currency deposits to 5 percent from 0.125 percent with effect from Friday.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance announced yesterday the government plans to sell NT$80 billion (US$2.44 billion) to NT$90 billion of government bonds in the third quarter to help fund the state treasury, a National Treasury Agency statement posted on the ministry's Web site said.
The government issued NT$110 billion of bonds in the first quarter of the year and another NT$100 billion in the second, the agency's data showed.
In the third quarter, the government plans to sell NT$20 billion of five-year bonds on July 17, followed by NT$20 billion to NT$30 billion of 20-year debt on Aug. 27, as well as NT$40 billion of 10-year bonds on Sept. 18, the statement said.
The government is issuing the bonds to fund a deficit that is expected to reach NT$142.3 billion by the end of this financial year, based on a budget approved by the Legislature earlier this month.
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