Taiwan’s inflationary pressures could ease in the next two quarters as international crude oil, grain and raw material prices show signs of stabilization, while the government said it would offer tariff breaks for cement manufacturers, the National Development Council said yesterday.
The council cited the US Energy Information Administration as saying that Brent oil prices should decline 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter from an average price of US$106.56 a barrel in the first half of this year.
The projection, if realized, would mitigate inflationary pressures on most consumer items, as Taiwan relies heavily on imported oil to drive industrial activity.
The council
Taiwan’s 16 financial holding companies were most exposed to the US in the fourth quarter of last year, for the 27th consecutive quarter, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said on Saturday.
US-related loans and investments held by the nation’s financial holding companies in the fourth quarter totaled NT$7.047 trillion (US$245.5 billion), including NT$6.35 trillion in net investment, commission data showed.
The financial holding companies had the second-greatest exposure to the Chinese market at NT$2.45 trillion, the data showed.
Since the second quarter of 2015, when the commission began to track Taiwanese financial companies’ global holdings, exposure to the US market has risen to