The central bank is expected to maintain its current base interest rate of 1.875 percent when it holds its quarterly board meeting on Thursday, analysts said.
It is likely to be the 10th time that the bank maintains its discount rate at the same level since the quarterly meeting of its board of directors in September 2011.
Tony Phoo (符銘財), chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank, forecast that interest rates will go up, but that the central bank would not adjust its discount rate just yet.
He forecast that the bank’s key interest rate would not rise before the first quarter of next year, citing increased electricity prices and high-speed rail tickets, which he said would gradually increase inflationary pressures.
Barclays Capital also forecast that the central bank would maintain its rates, adding that the nation’s economic recovery has been slow and inflation remains moderate.
Separately, the nation’s industrial production index is likely to show year-on-year growth for last month, extending a gain driven by solid global demand for handheld electronic devices, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Saturday.
The ministry is scheduled to release the data today.
With economic fundamentals in the EU and the US recovering at a mild pace, consumption has been rising during the Christmas shopping season, the ministry said.
In particular, buying interest in the global market has been sparked by the launch of new handheld electronic devices, paving the way for increased shipments by local manufacturers, the ministry said.
Demand has been growing in China for select high-tech gadgets from Taiwan, as Chinese vendors build up their inventories to prepare for increased demand during the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts at the end of next month, the ministry said.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
RSS