Taiwan’s outbound direct investment reached a new high in the second quarter, as tech firms including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) were keen to send funds abroad to expand their operations, the central bank said last week.
Data compiled by the central bank showed that outbound direct investment during the April-to-June period totaled US$10.7 billion, up from US$2.99 billion in the same period last year.
Taiwan’s net fund outflow in the second quarter hit US$14.57 billion in its financial account, which measures the flow of direct investment and portfolio investment, the central bank said, adding that the second quarter marked the 56th consecutive quarter of net fund outflows.
Photo: Reuters
The direct investment account recorded a net asset increase of US$6.54 billion in the second quarter. Of the components in the direct investment account, outbound direct investment by residents and inward direct investment by nonresidents posted net increases of US$10.7 billion and US$4.16 billion respectively, it said.
Taiwan’s portfolio investment account in the second quarter saw a net asset increase of US$13.06 billion. Of the components in the portfolio investment account, residents’ portfolio investment abroad registered a net increase of US$16.05 billion in the wake of a rise in holdings of outbound debt securities, the central bank said.
In addition, nonresidents’ portfolio investment posted a net increase of US$2.99 billion, mainly due to a rise in Taiwanese equity holdings by foreign investors, it added.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s current account, which mainly measures the exports and imports of the nation’s merchandise and services, registered a surplus of US$21.82 billion in the three-month period.
The goods trade surplus fell by US$1.22 billion from a year earlier to US$20.82 billion, on the back of an increase in imports of integrated circuits, and information and communications technology products.
Meanwhile, the services account recorded a deficit of US$4.06 billion, up from a US$2.29 billion deficit a year ago, largely due to an increase in travel expenses overseas, the central bank said.
In the first half of this year, Taiwan’s financial account saw a US$43.59 billion net fund outflow, while its current account recorded a surplus of US$51.49 billion, the central bank said.
Over the past 56 quarters, accumulated net fund outflows hit almost NT$26.58 trillion (US$850 billion).
Addressing concerns that investors would keep moving funds out of the country and into US dollar-denominated assets, the central bank said net fund outflows were common among countries such as Taiwan, which have long-term current account surpluses.
Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Germany all have long-term current account surpluses and tend to record net financial account outflows, the central bank said.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
Qualcomm Inc’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel Corp has cooled, people familiar with the matter said, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time. The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added. Representatives for Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm made a preliminary approach to Intel on a possible takeover, Bloomberg News and other media
RSS