Several foreign banks said yesterday that they expect the local central bank to leave key interest rates unchanged during the upcoming quarterly policymaking meeting scheduled for Sept. 26.
Among the foreign banks, ANZ Group Ltd said that as Taiwan’s economy is growing at only a mild pace, the central bank is expected to maintain ample liquidity in the market to give the economy a boost.
ANZ added that it is unlikely for the central bank to tighten its monetary policy during its next policymaking meeting.
Last month, the government cut its forecast for economic growth for this year to 2.31 percent from an earlier estimate of 2.40 percent, citing slower investment and weaker exports.
At its last policymaking meeting in late June, the central bank said interest rates would remain unchanged, maintaining the discount rate of 1.875 percent, the rate of accommodations with collateral at 2.25 percent and the rate of accommodations without collateral at 4.125 percent.
It was the eighth consecutive quarter during which the central bank reiterated its key interest rates.
Barclays PLC also anticipates the central bank’s key interest rates will remain unchanged after this month’s quarterly meeting.
Tony Phoo (符銘財), chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan, also agreed, pointing out that in addition to slow economic growth, Taiwan is facing a few inflationary threats, and because of these factors he does not anticipate the central bank will tighten monetary supply at the upcoming meeting.
Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) fell for the first time in more than three years last month due to a relatively high comparison base during the same period last year. The CPI was down 0.79 percent year-on-year last month and CPI growth averaged only 0.87 percent during the first half of the year.
However, Phoo said that as the government has decided to raise domestic electricity rates by 8.49 percent from Oct. 1 and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) is scheduled to increase fares by 7.1 percent and 9.6 percent from Oct. 8, the nation’s consumer prices are expected to face upward pressure.
He added that Taiwan would see heavier inflationary pressures in the future, which might prompt the central bank to start raising its key interest rates during the first quarter of next year at the earliest.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”