Central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) is to preside over his final quarterly policymaking meeting on Dec. 21 after the widely respected Perng announced he would retire in February.
Perng, who started his tenure as head of the central bank in February 1998, has said repeatedly he would step down in February to enjoy his retirement and has insisted that his role at the central bank would be his last government job.
The next policymaking meeting after next month’s is expected to be held in late March.
Perng has navigated a relatively conservative course during his nearly 20 years as head of the central bank, building strong foreign-exchange reserves while resisting calls to intervene aggressively to keep the New Taiwan dollar weaker to boost exports.
In August, Perng was again named among the world’s top central bankers by New York-based Global Finance magazine, receiving an “A” grade for a record 13th consecutive year.
His departure is likely to spark concerns about monetary policy and the bank’s independence from political influence.
Analysts believe Perng and the central bank are likely to leave key interest rates unchanged for a sixth straight quarter next month to lend continued support to the local economy, which is seen as recovering, but not at a fast enough pace to warrant a rate increase.
At its last meeting in late September, the central bank decided to maintain its existing interest rates, with the benchmark discount rate unchanged at 1.375 percent.
In the minutes of the September meeting, a majority of the bank’s directors and supervisors agreed that nominal interest rates have been higher than in many nations, making it unnecessary to tighten monetary policy at this time.
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