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TAIPEI - TAIWAN'S cabinet has adopted an eight-point package to support the domestic stock market, which has been battered by surging oil prices and a volatile Wall Street, officials said on Sunday.
The measures came amid mounting concerns that the Ma Ying-jeou administration, sworn in on May 20, was struggling to boost the sluggish domestic economy.
Failure to manage the economy was identified as one of the major factors that unseated the previous government of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party.
In a trip to southern Kaohsiung county on Sunday, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan said he had ordered Vice Premier Paul Chiu to lead an ad hoc contingency group to battle the economic slowdown.
The cabinet unveiled the economic measures package near Saturday midnight following the group's first meeting.
As part of the measures, four government-controlled funds will invest in the domestic stock market, according to an official statement, with the shares of blue-chip companies particularly targetted.
Taiwan share prices closed down 3.37 per cent on Friday, hitting a near-five-month low, after an overnight Wall Street dive and latest local interest rate hikes, dealers said. -- AFP
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