Oil and gas prices in Taiwan hit a six-year low on Monday. The state-owned oil company, CPC Corporation, Taiwan, announced price cuts of NT$1.2 per liter for gas, and by NT$1.4 per liter for diesel (both around US$0.04). The new prices went into effect in the early hours of Monday.
The price cuts at the pump came as international oil prices dipped below US$50 per barrel.
Economics Minister John Deng said Monday that the international oil price is likely to make a comeback later this year.
“The economics ministry is predicting that it will stabilize in the second half of the year," said Deng. "All we can say is that experts say it will stabilize within a year, because at their height, [international oil prices] reached US$112 per barrel, so when it stabilizes, the price should be somewhere between US$60 and US$80.”
Deng said that low oil prices are likely to help boost Taiwan’s economic growth rate. He said that foreign banks are predicting a bump of up to one percent. Deng said that local think tanks are also predicting that the record low oil prices will help Taiwan’s GDP. But he said that their estimates are more conservative: an increase of 0.2%.