The nation's inflation rate has been kept at a low and stable level in the past few years thanks to the central bank's strategy, central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) said in a speech during a meeting at the Presidential Office yesterday.
"Compared with other countries, Taiwan's inflation rate is being maintained at a low and steady level, which can be justified by the rate's average figure and its standard deviation," Perng said, according to a copy of the speech posted on the Presidential Office's Web site.
Between 1998 and last year, the average inflation rate was 0.79 percent with a standard deviation of 0.95 percent, Perng said, underlining his confidence on the price front.
Perng said the biggest challenge facing the central bank in a time of fast-changing global financial markets was balancing a stable currency exchange and monetary policy independence.
The second challenge was the problem of excess savings that has developed in the nation for many years, he said.
Perng said excess savings amounted to as much as NT$5.46 trillion between 1997 and last year. The central bank used public market operations and various instruments to absorb US$5.3 trillion of these funds from the money markets, he said.
But he stressed the key to resolving the problem of excess savings is how the government boosts domestic investment, not just the central bank's monetary policy.
Perng's speech comes amid concerns that rising commodities prices worldwide will eventually force manufacturers to pass on increased costs to consumers.
The consumer price index (CPI) declined 0.34 percent last month from a year earlier due to declines in vegetable and fruit prices, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said on Aug. 6.
While the CPI for the first seven months of the year increased just 0.47 percent from a year earlier, the wholesale price index -- which tracks prices of raw materials -- was up 6.65 percent, DGBAS data showed.
The Cabinet announced on Aug. 1 that it would halve import tariffs on seven agricultural products for six months beginning on Aug. 6.
The Cabinet is expected to announce a revised floating oil pricing mechanism today. The mechanism was suspended two weeks ago amid widespread complaints.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last