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.
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
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