Premier highlights five measures for price stability amid Middle East conflict

At Thursday's weekly Cabinet meeting, Premier Cho Jung-tai addressed recent developments in the Middle East and their impact on domestic commodity prices. The premier said the situation in the Middle East is evolving rapidly and remains highly tense. Since February 28, Taiwan's ministries and agencies have devoted full efforts to ensuring the safety of overseas Taiwanese nationals. Regarding oil and natural gas supplies, the government is exercising great caution and actively monitoring supply conditions for the March to June period. It has also taken steps to minimize increases in domestic fuel prices, helping to ease the burden on people's livelihoods. In addition, the Executive Yuan's price stabilization task force is working with emergency response teams across ministries and agencies to continuously monitor key economic indicators and ensure the stability of raw material supply chains.

As the Middle East conflict is still ongoing, Taiwan is experiencing some instability in market supply and prices, the premier said. In response to concerns over petrochemical import prices, he directed relevant ministries and agencies to strengthen monitoring efforts and take swift measures when necessary. These measures include: (1) ensuring that domestically produced petrochemical products and raw materials are allocated to meet the needs of local industries and supply chains first; (2) helping private petrochemical firms secure alternative overseas sources and diversify supply; (3) taking strict actions against hoarding, price gouging and other unlawful activities; (4) actively tracking fertilizer supply and prices and promptly regulating market supply and demand as needed; and (5) maintaining domestic price stability by closely monitoring price fluctuations for essential goods, increasing the frequency and intensity of joint inspections, and employing price stabilization mechanisms when appropriate.