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.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS