Central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan's (彭淮南) performance is graded "B" this year, up from last year's "C," according to a report by Global Finance magazine scheduled to be released tomorrow.
The report, "2004 Central Banker Report Cards," lauded Perng's new-found independence to maintain "dynamic stability" in the nation's foreign exchange market, which supports its export-driven economy.
His grades in the past years slid to "C" last year and in 2002 from "B" in 2001 and "A" in 2000.
"Perng Fai-nan may go down in history as the central banker who tried to break the Central Bank of China's habit of moving in lockstep with the US Fed," the magazine said about Perng.
Global Finance also quoted Perng saying in May that the central bank may not follow the US Federal Reserve if it raises interest rates.
"Monetary policy decisions should be country-specific, and cross-country synchronization of monetary policy is not necessarily desirable," it quoted Perng as saying in Jeju Island, South Korea, during the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank.
Taiwan has cut interest rates 15 times since December 2000, matching the Fed's actions nearly exactly. Local economists and market watchers have speculated that the central bank may raise interest rates today following its quarterly board meeting to avoid inflation, following the Fed's move last week.
The magazine said that Perng's decision to put an end to his three-year expansionary policy will be supported by the nation's economic growth forecasts for this year of 5.9 percent, and inflation that is unlikely to top 1.5 percent despite higher oil prices.
The annual survey rated the performance of 30 central bankers in the world this year, including those in 12 Asian countries.
Among the Asian bankers, Perng was awarded the same score as five of his counterparts, including India's Yaga Venugopal Reddy, Japan's Toshihiko Fukui, New Zealand's Alan Bollard, the Philippines' Rafael Buenaventura and Singapore's Park Seung.
Perng, however, outshone China's Zhou Xiaochuan (
According to Global Finance, some central bankers stand out for their improved handling of their country's economy. They include Switzerland's Jean-Pierre Roth, whose grade leapt from "D" to "B" in recognition of his startling turnaround, and Canada's David Dodge, whose grade inched up half a grade from "D" to "C+."
The magazine awarded the Fed chairman Alan Greenspan a "C" this year on the basis that "he's done a reasonable job in what remain difficult circumstances." Global Finance said it expects Greenspan's grade to improve next year.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
INDUSTRY LEADER: INDUSTRY LEADER: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
RSS