(Bloomberg) -- Inflation in Taiwan increased at the slowest pace since March 2021, though that is unlikely to convince the central bank to abandon its hawkish stance.
The consumer price index rose 1.69% in October from a year earlier, the statistics bureau in Taipei said in a statement on Wednesday. That compared with the median estimate of 1.8% from economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Inflation in the archipelago of 23 million people has fallen for three straight months but the central bank remains worried by high home prices. Underscoring that worry, minutes of a quarterly meeting of its board in September showed one member saying that efforts to counter climbing prices should not be relaxed given rents were expected to continue increasing.
In an effort to try to cool the property market, the monetary authority has twice boosted the amount of funds banks must hold in reserve and also kept its benchmark interest rate at the highest level in 16 years.
Central bank Governor Yang Chin-long has indicated that rates may remain elevated if CPI continues to hover between 1.5% to 2%.
The monetary authority announces its next interest rate decision on Dec. 19.
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