Regular pay in January averaged NT$44,369 (US$1,562.12), up 0.89 percent from a month earlier and 2.91 percent year-on-year, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said on Thursday.
The monthly growth was the highest since July last year, but the real annual increase was only 0.06 percent after deducting a 2.84 percent rise in the consumer price index, Department of Census Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said.
The largest hike was in the securities and financial sector, with the average regular salary increasing 4.78 percent, while the air cargo transport industry (up 3.39 percent) was second and the marine transport sector (up 3.12 percent) was third, DGBAS data showed.
Photo: CNA
Average irregular earnings in January were NT$64,527, which combined with regular pay totaled NT$108,896.
The average income increased 51.26 percent from a year earlier.
Chen ascribed the increase to the timing of annual and performance bonuses, which are usually paid in late January or early February, depending on the date of the Lunar New Year.
Lunar New Year day was on Feb. 1 this year and on Feb. 12 last year.
Irregular earnings in January varied from industry to industry, Chen said.
The financial sector had the highest level of irregular earnings, with an average of NT$213,000 for the month, with the telecommunications sector (NT$177,000) second, the air cargo transport sector (NT$169,000) third and the marine transport sector (NT$165,000) fourth, she said.
As of the end of January, 8.17 million people were employed in the industrial and services sectors, a decrease of 3,000 from a month earlier, but an increase of 3,000 from a year earlier, DGBAS data showed.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS