Central bank deputy governor Hsu Yi-hsiung (徐義雄) told legislators yesterday that he believes the US dollar's recent appreciation against major currencies would be a short-term uptick.
"There's little reason to believe that the greenback would continue to climb given its current economic climate," Hsu told the legislature's Finance Committee, responding to lawmakers' concerns that market views of a weaker US dollar may be soon revised.
The New Taiwan dollar's recent depreciation against the greenback was, therefore, not only in line with the general weakness of Asian currencies, but also reflected the US dollar's appreciation, he said.
For example, the US dollar was trading at ?112.62 on the Tokyo foreign exchange market at 3pm yesterday, down ?0.70 from late Tuesday.
Hsu also dismissed worries that the NT dollar's depreciation has anything to do with a hurried outflow of overseas capital including the share-dumping by foreign investors.
With the TAIEX rebounding and the yen's appreciation, the NT dollar yesterday turned strong against the greenback, gaining NT$0.142 to close at NT$33.505 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
With a turnover of US$750 million yesterday, the unit was traded against the US dollar between NT$33.647 and NT$33.490 during the session.
Speculation that foreign investors are abandoning the local stock market -- with NT$80 billion worth of Taiwanese shares having been sold in the past 10 days -- is believed to have caused the recent depreciation in the local currency.
Hsu said that the outward remittances of around US$1.5 billion by foreign investors recently is "relatively reasonable."
Hsu said that he had not noticed speculators trying to manipulate the local currency, but the central bank would step in to moderate the NT dollar's irrational fluctuation triggered by the movement of foreign capital if necessary..
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Mao-nan (
He also said that the central bank would closely monitor the currency's movement in order to maintain the nation's export competitiveness against other Asian trade competitors, including South Korea and Singapore.
Meanwhile, Wu Tang-chieh (吳當傑), former vice chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission, yesterday expressed his confidence in the TAIEX. He said the index may slowly rise since MSCI has decided to add three Taiwanese high-tech companies into its index list.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS