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.
Shiina Ito has had fewer Chinese customers at her Tokyo jewelry shop since Beijing issued a travel warning in the wake of a diplomatic spat, but she said she was not concerned. A souring of Tokyo-Beijing relations this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan, has fueled concerns about the impact on the ritzy boutiques, noodle joints and hotels where holidaymakers spend their cash. However, businesses in Tokyo largely shrugged off any anxiety. “Since there are fewer Chinese customers, it’s become a bit easier for Japanese shoppers to visit, so our sales haven’t really dropped,” Ito
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and the company’s former chairman, Mark Liu (劉德音), both received the Robert N. Noyce Award -- the semiconductor industry’s highest honor -- in San Jose, California, on Thursday (local time). Speaking at the award event, Liu, who retired last year, expressed gratitude to his wife, his dissertation advisor at the University of California, Berkeley, his supervisors at AT&T Bell Laboratories -- where he worked on optical fiber communication systems before joining TSMC, TSMC partners, and industry colleagues. Liu said that working alongside TSMC
RSS