Taiwan Central Bank Holds Policy Rate At 1.83%

(RTTNews) - Taiwan's central bank retained its key interest rate for the second straight meeting on Thursday, with the aim of fostering sound economic and financial development on the whole.

The central bank board decided to maintain the key discount rate at 1.875 percent.

The previous rate hike was 100 basis points in March, which was the fifth consecutive tightening move by the bank.

The bank anticipates inflation will trend slightly lower in the second half of the year than in the first. For this year as a whole, the annual inflation and the core inflation were forecasted to register 2.22 percent and 2.44 percent, respectively.

Recent official data showed that the country's consumer price inflation accelerated to a 7-month high of 2.52 percent in August from 1.88 percent in July.

The bank anticipates that the domestic economy will likely expand at a slower-than-expected pace this year, and the output gap is estimated to be negative for both this and next year.

The bank reiterated that it will pay attention to developments including the spillover effects of monetary tightening by major economies, signs of steepening in China's economic slowdown, international raw material price changes, geopolitical risks, and extreme weather events.