Taiwan remained the fifth-largest net creditor in the world at the end of last year, as the nation’s net international investment position (NIIP) rose 0.9 percent to a new record at US$1.41 trillion, albeit slower than a 10.5 percent growth in 2020, the central bank said yesterday.
NIIP is the difference between a country’s external financial assets and its external financial liabilities.
Japan was the world’s largest net creditor with an NIIP of US$3.6 trillion, followed by Germany with US$2.7 trillion, Hong Kong with US$2.1 trillion and China with US$1.9 trillion, the central bank told a virtual news conference.
Photo: Allen Wu, Taipei Times
While Hong Kong’s NIIP stayed flat from a year earlier, Japan, Germany and China all saw their NIIPs decline last year, it said.
Taiwan’s external assets last year grew 7.9 percent year-on-year to US$2.71 trillion, as local life insurers purchased more overseas bonds and their holdings of foreign equities posted higher valuations, the central bank said.
As a result, the nation’s investment in overseas securities expanded 11.3 percent annually to US$1.2 trillion at the end of last year, it said.
Taiwan’s direct investment in overseas markets gained 10.9 percent from a year earlier to US$444.5 billion, while external assets held by the central bank edged up 3.5 percent to US$553.9 billion, it added.
The nation’s external liability last year grew 16.7 percent to US$1.3 trillion, mainly because of a 14 percent increase in direct investment by foreigners and a 23 percent increase in securities investment by foreign investors, the central bank said.
As the TAIEX last year advanced 23.7 percent — outstripping the global average of 17 percent — rising local stock prices pushed up the valuation of shares held by foreign institutional investors, which in turn boosted the nation’s external liability, the central bank said.
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