Central bank Deputy Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) has reportedly won the nomination as the nation’s top monetary policymaker after Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) retires on Feb. 25.
In an exclusive report yesterday, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) broke the news, which is consistent with market expectations.
The long-awaited appointment, which still requires confirmation from the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan, would make Yang the central bank’s first deputy to become governor.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
He is expected to extend Perng’s “dynamic stability” approach in dealing with foreign exchange.
Yang, 64, who earned his doctoral degree in economics from the University of Birmingham in 1989, served in the central bank’s research, foreign exchange and banking departments, and was its representative in its London office, before becoming deputy governor in 2008.
His purported appointment appears to be a safe call, as he is familiar with the central bank’s duties and operations, and would help stabilize the foreign exchange market, Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) said.
“It is time the central bank sends foreign funds a message that it will not sit around tolerating drastic appreciations of the local currency,” Sun said.
Foreign exchange policy represents the No. 1 challenge for the next governor, as it has a profound bearing on Taiwan’s export-reliant economy, he said.
The New Taiwan dollar has gained 2.5 percent against the US dollar this year after picking up 8.14 percent last year.
In a rare move, the central bank on Thursday blamed the greenback’s volatility on interventions by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that a weaker US dollar is in the interest of the US as it relates to trade, the central bank said in a statement.
Mnuchin’s predecessors believed in a strong greenback to advance the same purpose, it added.
“While it is impractical to battle the global trend, the central bank can still weigh in and slow the pace to allow local firms some buffers,” Sun said.
Foreign exchange losses last year totaled NT$176.1 billion (US$6.05 billion) for domestic life insurance companies alone, eroding their profits by 60 percent, Financial Supervisory Commission data showed.
Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (中華經濟研究院) head economic researcher Liu Meng-chun (劉孟俊) said the most formidable challenge for Yang would be to continue the central bank’s independent operation, which many have attributed to Perng’s professional and personal prestige.
Perng has been rated as one of the world’s top-tier central bankers by New York-based magazine Global Finance for 14 consecutive years and last week won a lifetime achievement award from global Central Banking Publications.
“It remains to be seen if Yang, a long-standing loyal deputy governor, can step out of Perng’s shadow and command support from ruling and opposition camps for his policy decisions,” Liu told the Taipei Times.
To avoid controversy, Yang might take cues from Perng and put economic stability ahead of corporate profitability, Liu said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS