TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs, Wang Mei-hua, stated on Friday (March 1), that the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) will closely monitor fluctuations in electricity prices and its potential impact on domestic issues.
She emphasized that specific electricity price plans will be discussed by the Electricity Price Review Committee.
Wang argues the main reason for the losses incurred by the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) over the past two to three years is that the electricity price fails to fully reflect the cost. She added that the MOEA will prioritize seeking relevant government subsidies.
One day earlier, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) under the Executive Yuan revised this year's Consumer Price Index (CPI) annual growth rate upward to 1.85%, an increase of 0.21 percentage points from last November. The data does not yet include factors related to the increase in electricity prices.
Wang stated that due to an economic downturn over the past two to three years that caused an inventory reduction, along with rapid industry recovery driven by artificial intelligence (AI), and the upcoming Olympics among other factors, Taiwan's economic growth rate for this year is expected to exceed 3%.
Some scholars are concerned that if electricity prices are increased in April, inflation might surpass the caution line of 2%. At the same time, the Executive Yuan revised this year's economic growth rate upward by 0.08 percentage points to 3.43%, the best performance in the past three years.
