The central bank would not consider raising the interest rate unless inflationary pressures become uncontrollable, although it would consider further tightening credit to cool the property market, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday.
Yang said that consumer prices, interest rate decisions by major economies and the local responses to COVID-19 would guide the central bank’s policymaking.
The chance of rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve in the first half of next year stands at 50 percent after consumer prices in the US climbed by more than 5 percent for five straight months, Yang said.
Photo: Liao Cheng-hui, Taipei Times
The Fed has stood by its view that consumer price index (CPI) readings would slow in the second half of next year, although pressure is building for tightening measures, said Yang, who has taken cues from the Fed and described inflation at home and abroad as transitory.
Taiwan’s consumer prices grew 1.82 percent in the first 10 months and would not exceed the 2 percent alert level for the remainder of the year, Yang said, citing data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.
Most research bodies expect the inflationary gauge in Taiwan to ease below 1.5 percent next year, while GDP growth would hover around 3 percent, affirming stable consumer prices, Yang said.
The forecasts show that neither inflation nor stagflation is a problem for Taiwan, although CPI values would remain relatively high in the first quarter of next year due partly to the low base effect, he said.
Consumer prices picked up this year after stalling last year, which affected some people, Yang said.
The pace of CPI gains is less noticeable if judging from two-year averages or over longer terms, the governor said.
However, Yang said the central bank would closely monitor existing credit controls to see if they are strong enough to induce a soft landing for the local housing market.
The governor said he saw both economic fundamentals and speculation underpinning current housing price rises.
The government has stiffened loan-to-value ratios for purchases of multiple homes, land financing, second-home mortgages in popular locations and income taxes from short-term property transactions, he said.
Those measures should help stem property inflation, the governor said, adding that the central bank would proactively review its policies and introduce stricter measures whenever necessary.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
RSS