The Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), the nation’s biggest state-run bank, will cut interest rates on Monday after the central bank cut its benchmark interest rates on Thursday. Other major state-run commercial lenders are expected to follow suit next week.
The bank will lower the interest rate on various time deposits and time savings deposits by between 0.1 percentage points and 0.39 percentage points in response to the central bank’s move, it said in a statement on its Web site.
The rate cuts also reflect the funding conditions on the market and market competition, it added.
Following in the footsteps of other central banks’ interest rate cuts earlier this week to stem the global financial crisis, the nation’s central bank announced on Thursday it would lower its discount rate by 25 basis points to 3.25 percent, effective immediately. This was the second cut in two weeks as the central bank aimed to offer local banks with cheaper 10-day loans.
At the same time, on its open market operations, the central bank also lowered the rates for the 30-day, 91-day and 182-day negotiable certificates of deposit (NCD) by 10 basis points to 1.97 percent, 2.06 percent and 2.16 percent, respectively, which allowed room for commercial lenders to cut their rates for customers.
Under the new adjustment, the Bank of Taiwan rates for one-year time deposits and time savings deposits would drop to 2.55 percent and 2.575 percent, respectively, the statement showed.
On Sept. 26, the central bank began lowering its discount rate by 0.125 percentage points after 16 consecutive quarterly rises to boost the domestic economy amid easing inflation.
The central bank will likely face further pressure to cut interest rates, a Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) economist projected yesterday.
“We see more interest rate cuts in the pipeline, possibly of 25 basis points each — instead of the previous projected 12.5 basis points — given still-fluid market conditions,” Tony Phoo (符銘財), the chief economist of Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) Ltd, wrote in a report released yesterday.
This would bring the central bank’s benchmark discount rate to 3 percent by the end of this year and down further to 2.25 percent by the end of next year, Phoo said.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS