DOMESTIC RECOVERY RATE IS SLOW, INTEREST RATES STUCK ON 4|國內經濟復甦仍緩慢 央行利率"連4凍"

The Central Bank held its second quarter review meeting and announced that interest rates would be frozen for the fourth consecutive quarter and that the discount rate, the rate at which the central bank lends to financial institutions mainly for short term purposes, would be maintained at 1.375 percent. As Taiwan's economic growth and inflation outlook are moderately stable, coupled with uncertain international financial markets, the central bank held the second quarter review meeting and announced that the interest rate would be unchanged for the fourth quarter, and the discount rate, that is the rate at which the Central Bank lends to financial institutions, is still 1.375 percent. ==PERNG FAI-NAN Governor, Central Bank == As for real interest rates matching with the economic growth rate Taiwan is not particularly far off on these. Many countries have a higher economic growth rate than us, but their real interest rates are still lower than ours. So Taiwan is moderately paced on this. Perng said compared with other countries, many had higher GDPs than Taiwan, and their interest rates were also higher, Taiwan's appropriate rate was a bit more relaxed. Responding to Taiwan's low wage economy he singled out low commodity prices, rather than stagnant wages as the reason. According to research, raising wages affected commodity prices, but commodity prices did not affect wages. ==PERNG FAI-NAN Governor, Central Bank== Regarding commodity prices affecting wages, what effect this would have. If wages and commodity prices spiral up, when wages rise first and then commodity prices rise, in a repeated pattern, this creates a rising spiral. When unions are strong and demand that wages keep up with commodity prices and manufacturers add in these costs to reflect their outlay and in turn, this is reflected in prices. So the prices of commodities rise, but the wages won't rise. As for the US putting Taiwan on the exchange rate manipulation watch list, Perng said that compared with the past, the exchange rate volatility of the Taiwan dollar against the US dollar was not significant, and it was still more stable than other currencies. Whether Taiwan could be taken off the manipulation watch list was up to the US to decide and so it was not an objective decision. TRANSLATED BY：CLARE LEAR 中央銀行今天召開，今年第2季理監事聯席會議，宣布利率「連4凍」維持不變，重貼現率仍為1.375%。 由於台灣經濟成長與通膨展望溫和，加上國際金融市場不確定性仍高，中央銀行下午召開第2季理事會議後宣布，利率連4季不變，重貼現率仍為1.375%。 ==中央銀行總裁 彭淮南== 實質利率跟經濟成長率來配的話 事實上台灣不算特別寬鬆 因為很多國家的經濟成長率 比我們高 而且它的實質利率還比我們低 所以台灣只是能說 適度的寬鬆而已 彭淮南表示，如果跟其他國家比相比，許多國家的GDP比我們高，實質利率也比我們高，台灣只是適度寬鬆，對於台灣低薪問題，他也特別點出物價低，並不是薪資不漲的原因，因為根據研究，薪資的上升會影響物價，但物價對薪資的影響不明顯。 ==中央銀行總裁 彭淮南== 根據物價來調整薪資的話 會造成什麼東西呢 就是薪資物價盤旋上升 假如說物價漲薪資升物價再漲 如此反覆的進行的話 會造成物價薪資物價的盤旋上升 假如工會的力量龐大的話 要求工資照物價調升的話 假如說廠商把這個成本 反映在它的價格上 實質工資也不會上漲 至於台灣被美國放在匯率操縱觀察名單上，彭淮南則說跟過去相較，台幣兌美元匯率波動度並未大幅擴大，仍較其他貨幣穩定，要不要放在操縱觀察名單是美國決定，是否能被刪除也是美國所決定，並不客觀。 吳雅瑜 張梓嘉SNG台北報導