The government will take a more progressive approach in liberalizing financial regulations to boost the economy and stimulate the stock market, Council of Economic Planning and Development Chairman Chen Tain-jy (陳添枝) said yesterday.
Chen made the announcement after the weekly meeting of a Cabinet task force on commodity price stabilization convened by Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄).
“The new government has to reflect humbly on whether its economic opening policy fell short of the expectations of investors after it assumed office, as a result of which they took some action [to sell their shares],” Chen told a press conference.
The weighted index of the Taipei stock market yesterday closed at 7,855, a drop of 1,213 points, or 13.37 percent, from 9,068 points when the new government took office on May 20.
“Although the Taipei stock market had a relatively good performance earlier this year in comparison with markets in other countries, stock prices in May are slumping badly,” Chen said.
He said the new government had not taken any measures to halt the stock market plunge because it had to first determine the causes of the drop.
Chen blamed the stock market fall on the overall decline of the global markets and a retreat by foreign investors.
“The fundamentals of the market shares are basically good, but foreign investors may think that the government is slow in implementing an open economic policy,” he said.
Chen said the government has exchanged ideas with US, EU and Australian business associations and they all suggested the government speed up the liberalization of financial services including banking, insurance, stocks and bonds, and private funds.
“Nevertheless, foreign investors still considered the dropping Taipei stock exchange a potential market, or they wouldn’t have expected us to be more positive about financial liberalization. We should grasp the opportunity to turn the country into an important financial center,” he said.
Chen said that the government would continue to stabilize commodity prices, as price increases could negatively affect the economy.
Yeh Huey-ching (葉惠青), director-general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Energy, said yesterday that the recent hike in fuel prices has had a positive effect on curbing energy consumption.
After prices were frozen for six months, the government allowed the state-owned CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油), the nation’s biggest oil refiner, to raise its unleaded gasoline prices by 13 percent and diesel prices by 16 percent from May 28.
Sales of gasoline dropped 11.7 percent last month, while those for diesel declined by 21.5 percent, in comparison with March, when Formosa Petrochemical Corporation raised its prices of gasoline and diesel, Yeh said.
“Compared with the same time last year, the number of commuters taking the [Taipei] mass rapid transit system between June 1 and June 15 increased by 9.7 percent, and the number of commuters taking buses in the period rose by 4.5 percent,” Yeh said.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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