Former US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday arrived Taipei to take part in a forum with prominent Taiwanese business and economic leaders.
He is the first former Fed chairperson to visit Taiwan after the end of their term.
Bernanke is on a multi-legged speaking trip to Asia that has already taken him to Shanghai and will see him join the two-day World Business Forum in Hong Kong next week.
Bernanke is scheduled to meet central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) before attending today’s forum organized by the Chinese-language Business Weekly.
He is expected to exchange views on key economic issues at the forum with industrial leaders such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀), CTBC Bank Co (中國信託銀行) chairman Tung Chao-chin (童兆勤) and former National Development Council minister Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), including the widening wealth gap and the impact of the US’ quantitative easing monetary policy on the world economy.
Earlier yesterday, Bernanke spoke at the Shanghai Forum, telling participants that China needs to create deep and liquid markets to avoid currency risks as it makes the yuan a convertible currency.
“China needs to avoid currency mismatch as it opens its capital account,” he said. “For a currency to be internationally traded, what you need most is liquid markets. A deep market means people can get their money out.”
China is in the final stages of opening up its capital account, giving global investors greater access to its stock and bond markets while making it easier for its citizens to put their money in offshore assets.
A freer flow of funds is needed for policymakers to achieve their goal of getting the yuan recognized as part of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket of reserve currencies when the IMF conducts a review in October.
“When opening the capital account, you need to make sure the economy is strong enough to handle the fund flows out,” Bernanke said.
“An open account is a two-edged sword” and a drop in the currency could cause panic and an exodus of money, he said.
China’s desire to make the yuan an SDR currency is for “pride and image,” Bernanke said.
“If the yuan becomes an SDR currency it won’t have any effect on the average Chinese. It’s mainly symbolic,” he said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS