Taiwan pledges ‘effective’ measures as markets tumble
1:47 am Monday, September 26th, 2022
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s stock stabilisation fund is paying close attention to market conditions and will take “effective” countermeasures, Deputy Finance Minister Frank Juan told Reuters on Monday after another large fall in share prices.
Taiwan’s fundamentals are still very good, but the National Stabilisation Fund will closely watch the impact of the global economy’s possible slowdown, said Juan, who also heads the fund.
Other government departments will also monitor the market and take relevant measures, he said.
The fund, which is run by the finance ministry, can intervene in stocks if the government judges there is a large amount of volatility.
Taiwan’s main share index is down more than 24% so far this year and closed down 2.4% on Monday. The market has wilted on concerns the global slowdown will impact the island’s trade dependent economy, a major producer of semiconductors used in everything from consumer electronics to fighter jets.
The government still expects the economy to grow more than 3% this year, though that is much slower than the 6.45% logged for 2021, which was the fastest rate since the 10.25% pace in 2010.
(Reporting by Liang-sa Loh; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Himani Sarkar & Shri Navaratnam)
