By Faith Hung and Liang-sa Loh
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s central bank held its policy rate unchanged as expected on Thursday, prompted by lingering concerns over inflation and uncertainty about new U.S. trade tariffs.
The central bank left the benchmark discount rate at 2%, in line with predictions from a Reuters poll of 33 economists, who all expected the rate to be held steady.
The central bank slightly lowered its 2025 estimate for economic growth to 3.05% from a forecast of 3.13% given in December. Taiwan’s economy grew 4.59% in 2024.
In a report released by the central bank after its quarterly rate-setting meeting, it said Taiwan so far had seen limited impact from higher U.S. tariffs on countries including Canada, Mexico and China, and the island’s export momentum would continue this year.
Trump has threatened across-the-board import tariffs, targeting countries with large trade surpluses with the United States, and has also said he could put tariffs on semiconductors, a sector Taiwan dominates.
Taiwan’s tech-focused economy, home to the world’s largest chipmaker TSMC, has powered ahead thanks to demand from companies such as Nvidia for artificial intelligence applications.
The central bank kept its consumer price index (CPI) forecast for this year at 1.89%, unchanged from its December forecast.
(Reporting by Liang-sa Loh and Faith Hung; Writing by Yimou Lee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Peter Graff)
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