The government is not engaged in currency manipulation, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) reiterated yesterday, amid speculation that the sudden appreciation of the local currency was related to pressure from the US.
Speaking prior to a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan, Cho said the New Taiwan dollar has always been stable, that Taiwan was not a country that engaged in currency manipulation and that the central bank has always abided by the law in observing fluctuations in exchange rates.
Asked about central bank Governor Yang Chin-long’s (楊金龍) comment that there were signs of speculators seeking to disrupt the NT dollar, Cho said that such illegal market behavior would not be tolerated.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
He added that he had asked the central bank and financial institutions to impose strict checks on such behavior.
The NT dollar rose sharply on Friday and Monday, appreciating by NT$1.872 from NT$32.017 against the US dollar on Wednesday to close at NT$30.145 on Monday.
The local currency had hovered at about NT$32.5 to NT$33 from the beginning of this year to late last month before its sudden surge.
Photo: An Rong Xu, Bloomberg
The sharp gains, combined with the US dollar lagging behind most major currencies over the past two sessions, led to speculation that Asian countries, including Taiwan, were trading higher exchange rates for lower levies in response to US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
Taiwanese officials have been at pains to repeat that the NT dollar’s sudden appreciation had nothing to do with pressure from Washington, but the government has done little either rhetorically or in practice to call out Trump’s coercion on tariffs and trade.
Cho said he hoped that market mechanisms would stabilize exchange rates, and that seemed to be the trend yesterday.
The US dollar was trading at about NT$30.13 at noon yesterday after falling below the NT$30 threshold earlier in the morning. It closed at NT$30.280.
Taiwan had been listed by the US as a currency manipulator in 1988 and 1992, and it was included on the US Department of the Treasury’s currency “monitoring list” in its latest report in November last year, the sixth time in a row Taiwan has made the list.
The designation identifies major US trading partners “whose currency practices and macroeconomic policies merit close attention.”
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS