Barclays PLC expects Taiwan’s central bank to start a cycle of raising rates in the fourth quarter of this year, as the nation’s economy is heading for a recovery.
Barclays economist Waiho Leong said in a recent research note he expects the central bank to begin reducing liquidity as domestic demand is showing steady improvement.
The central bank is also concerned about inflation, Leong said.
The central bank is likely to raise its key interest rates by 0.125 percentage points in its quarterly monetary policymaking meeting scheduled for late December.
In its latest meeting in June, the central bank announced it would leave key interest rates unchanged. The bank has left interest rates flat for 12 consecutive quarters in hopes it will boost the economy.
The bank has maintained the 1.875 percent discount rate, the 2.25 percent rate of accommodations with collateral and the 4.125 percent rate of accommodations without collateral for three years.
Recently, amid improving export growth and a recovery in private consumption, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, raised its GDP forecast for this year to 3.41 percent, up from an earlier estimate of 2.98 percent.
The agency expects Taiwan’s real merchandise and services export growth in New Taiwan dollar terms after inflationary adjustments will hit 4.53 percent for this year. Private consumption growth will reach 2.62 percent.
The British banking group said market confidence in Taiwan’s economic outlook has strengthened so the chances are higher that the central bank will raise its key interest rates soon.
Barclays said that since Taiwan is in the typhoon season bad weather could cause food prices to rise this month and next, which would increase inflation. This would add to pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates.
The consumer price index rose 1.75 percent last month from a year earlier, its highest year-on-year growth since February last year, when inflation grew 2.96 percent year-on-year.
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