COST OF LIVING/Bank of Taiwan to raise rates for depositors

Taipei, March 24 (CNA) State-owned Bank of Taiwan announced Friday that it will raise the floating rate for its one-year time deposit accounts by 0.125 percentage points to 1.59 percent, effective on Monday.

It will be the highest floating rate for one-year time deposit accounts at the leading state-owned bank of the country in 14 years.

The bank is the first financial institute to respond to the central bank's decision on Thursday to raise its key interest rates by 12.5 basis points.

It is the fifth consecutive quarter that the central bank has raised interest rates, in an effort to fight inflation, following the footsteps of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which hiked its rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday.

For its benchmark one-year time savings deposits accounts, the Bank of Taiwan said the floating rate would rise from 1.465 percent to 1.59 percent, indicating the bank's intentions to fully reflect the central bank's adjustments.

As a result of the latest rate hike, depositors who have NT$1 million (US$32,891) in one-year time deposit accounts will receive NT$15,900 in interest, about NT$7,500 more than the amount before the central bank began its current interest rate hike cycle in March last year.

In addition, the Bank of Taiwan has also decided to raise the floating rates to 1.625 percent and 1.66 percent in its two-year and three-year time savings deposits accounts.