Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves last month gained US$1.13 billion from the previous month to US$577.98 billion, backed by higher interest income, which offset capital outflows, the central bank said yesterday.
November is the high season for the central bank to collect interest income on its bond holdings, Department of Foreign Exchange Deputy Director-General Ho Lan-chih (賀蘭芝) told a media briefing in Taipei.
“The currency market is quite stable and the central bank rarely stepped in to maintain market order and stability,” Ho said.
Photo: REUTERS
However, foreign portfolio managers trimmed their positions in local equities and bonds amid anxiety over US president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threat, which could weigh on Taiwan’s electronics exports, she said.
The global capital movements also had to do with Trump’s pledge to “make America great again” through tax cuts and protectionist trade measures, which lent support to the US dollar against almost all other major currencies, Ho said.
Last month, the euro fell 2.27 percent, the British pound declined 2.28 percent, the Chinese yuan shrank 1.37 percent and the New Taiwan dollar depreciated 1.51 percent against the US dollar, she said, adding that the yen managed to buck the trend with a 2.14 percent increase.
Financial markets are now looking at a potential interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve later this month after the latest data showed the US economy was relatively resilient, but appeared to be wanting in strength, Ho said.
The US dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, picked up 1.69 percent last month, Ho said.
The movement of the greenback would continue to dominate the NT dollar’s direction even though the brief martial law declaration in South Korea helped boost the local currency this week, she said.
Taiwan last month replaced India as the world’s fourth-largest holder of foreign exchange reserves after China, Japan and Switzerland, central bank data showed.
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
Intel Corp chief financial officer Dave Zinsner said that a formal separation of the company’s factory and product development divisions is an open question that would be decided by the chipmaker’s next leader. Zinsner, who is serving as interim co-CEO following this month’s ouster of Pat Gelsinger, made the remarks on Thursday at the Barclays technology conference in San Francisco alongside co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus. Intel’s struggles to keep pace with rivals — along with its deteriorating financial condition — have spurred speculation that the next CEO would make dramatic changes. That has included talk of a split of the company’s manufacturing
HOUSING: The uptick to 2.24 percent came despite the central bank leaving its policy unchanged for two quarters and raising lenders’ required reserve ratios Mortgage interest rates last quarter spiked to a 15-year high of 2.23 percent despite a decline in loan applications, as local lenders slowed real-estate lending to support the central bank’s credit controls, Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) said yesterday. “The data suggests that buying a home is growing increasingly difficult,” the brokers said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (聯徵中心). The uptick in mortgage burdens came even though the central bank left its policy rates unchanged in the past two quarters and hiked the lenders’ required reserve ratios to drain money from the market, head researcher Charlene Chang (張旭嵐) said. Further, the
In a patch of South America rich in lithium, used to make batteries for electric cars and other tech, Bolivia is lagging its neighbors in the race to mine the key metal. An area called the “lithium triangle” which spills over the borders of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina is home to 60 percent of the world’s lithium reserves, according to the US Geological Survey. Bolivia claims to have Earth’s largest deposit of the metal, used to make rechargeable batteries for smartphones, laptops and other devices besides e-vehicles. However, Bolivia has undertaken only four pilot projects and is running just one
RSS