Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/14/2020
By: Pan Tzu-yu and Frances Huang

Taipei, Sept. 14 (CNA) The central bank is expected to leave its key interest rates unchanged in an upcoming quarterly policymaking meeting scheduled for Thursday amid eased worries over COVID-19 in Taiwan, an economist said Monday.

Wu Meng-tao (吳孟道), director of the sixth research division of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER), said that Taiwan has been doing better than many other countries to contain COVID-19 and that the efforts have helped to stabilize the local economy.

Moreover, he said, as the local market remains awash in liquidity and Taiwan's economy has been ascending from a low caused by the spread of the virus, "it is not necessary for the central bank to lower interest rates and pump in more funds at the moment."

In March, the central bank lowered interest rates by 0.25 percentage points, marking the first rate reduction after leaving interest rates unchanged for 14 consecutive quarters at a time when the global economy faced strong headwinds caused by COVID-19. In the quarterly policymaking meeting held in June, the central bank decided to maintain its key interest rates.
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