The local housing market might experience a soft landing in the first half of next year, after months of declining transactions caused by unfavorable policy measures and economic changes, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said yesterday.
Yang made the remarks while responding to lawmakers’ questions about the property market, monetary policy and inflation at a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee.
“The property market might need more time to assimilate the previous three rate hikes, which were intended to tame inflation but help cool property transactions,” Yang said.
Photo: Liao Chen-hui, Taipei Times
A drop in transactions usually precedes price corrections, he said.
Unaffordable housing is the public’s biggest complaint, especially among young people, surveys have shown.
The number of housing transfers in the nation’s six special municipalities shrunk by double-digit percentage points in the second half of this year, with the pace of retreat accelerating each month, government statistics showed.
Yang has favored a moderate approach to tackling inflation and housing price hikes, while other central bank board directors have pushed for more drastic monetary tightening.
The governor refused to comment on whether interest rates would be raised again on Thursday, saying that all central bank board members are required to say nothing 10 days ahead of a board meeting.
Inflation and the economic outlook would dominate policy discussions, Yang said, adding that consumer price increases of within 2 percent would be acceptable in his opinion.
Research organizations have said that Taiwan’s inflation rate is expected be below target for next year, thanks to tax cuts on imported raw materials and the absence of supply chain disruptions that have plagued the US and Europe.
The central bank must also weigh how seriously the worsening global economic slowdown would affect Taiwan’s GDP growth, Yang said.
Taiwan’s GDP is expected to expand a slight 2.5 percent next year, driven mainly by government and consumer expenditure, as exports slip into contraction this quarter and in the coming six months.
There is no need for Taiwan to copy advanced economies’ monetary policies, and the central bank would deal with the matter based on the nation’s best interests, Yang said.
Analysts generally expect another 0.125 percentage rate hike to narrow Taiwan’s rate gap with the US, as the US Federal Reserve could raise the interest rate by 0.5 percentage points later this week.
Yang said he has reservations about Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co ( 台積電) founder Morris Chang’s (張忠謀) statement that globalization is dead.
“I don’t agree that globalization is dead, although its content has shifted... That is an extreme statement,” Yang said.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
RSS