Vietnam became Taiwan’s ninth-largest debtor at the end of the third quarter, as growing tensions between Washington and Beijing prompted many enterprises to move to the Southeast Asian country, boosting demand for funds, the central bank reported on Friday.
On a direct risk basis, loans extended to Vietnam by Taiwanese banks had climbed to US$14.86 billion by the end of the third quarter, from US$13.49 billion at the end of the second, the central bank said.
The UK dropped one place to become Taiwan’s 10th-largest debtor with debt to Taiwanese banks totaling US$14.56 billion, up from US$13.99 billion the previous quarter, it said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
On an ultimate risk basis, which calculates a country’s consolidated debt after risk transfers, Vietnam’s debt to Taiwanese banks was US$12.26 billion at the end of the third quarter, while the UK’s was US$10.31 billion, central bank data showed.
As an increasing number of enterprises seek to relocate their investments to Vietnam from China, interbank and syndicated loans in Vietnam rose in the third quarter, said Pan Ya-hui (潘雅慧), deputy head of the central bank’s Examination Department.
At the end of the third quarter, Taiwanese banks’ international claims totaled US$512.2 billion, up 1.61 percent from the second quarter, the central bank said.
On a direct risk basis, the US remained the largest debtor to Taiwanese banks with loans totaling US$116.32 billion, up from US$113.28 billion at the end of the second quarter, it said.
China was Taiwanese banks’ second-largest debtor with loans totaling US$58.77 billion, up from US$56.78 billion at the end of the second quarter, while Luxembourg was third with US$43.00 billion, followed by Hong Kong (US$36.17 billion), Japan (US$33.74 billion), Australia (US$25.18 billion), the Cayman Islands (US$18.95 billion) and Singapore (US$16.93 billion).
Loans extended by Taiwanese banks to the top 10 debtors totaled US$378.5 billion and accounted for 73.90 percent of the banks’ international claims, the central bank said.
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