The nation's currency had its lowest close in two weeks on concern the central bank will sell dollars to protect exporters against Japanese rivals that have benefited from a slumping yen. Japan's yen was headed for its fifth weekly drop.
The New Taiwan dollar weakened NT$0.082 against its US counterpart to close at NT$31.699, the weakest close since March 30, on the Taipei foreign exchange market. The currency declined NT$0.102 against the greenback before noon, in line with the weakening yen and the euro.
Turnover was US$965 million, up from US$738.5 million the previous day.
The NT dollar, declining for a second week, was also under pressure from falling stock shares. Investors based outside the country sold a net NT$7.99 billion (US$252.2 million) of Taiwanese shares yesterday, more than twice the NT$3.35 billion sold on Thursday, according to Taiwan Stock Exchange data. For the week, foreign investors sold a net NT$12.74 billion of Taiwanese shares and for the month as of yesterday, NT$9.57 billion, the stock exchange said.
The Chung Hwa Institution for Economic Research (中經院) on Thursday cut its growth forecast to 4.05 percent from 4.37 percent because of sluggish export growth. Exports account for almost half of the nation's economy.
The institute predicted the NT dollar will gradually climb to NT$31.31 against the US dollar by the end of the year, appreciating 6.32 percent from last year.
If the local currency further appreciates to break NT$30 against the greenback, growth in the export sector may slow and the economy will only grow 2.51 percent for the year, it said.
The nation's exporters may find it harder to compete as the yen's slide against the US dollar lowers the cost of Japanese products abroad. The NT dollar is up 0.7 percent over the past three months and the yen down 5.8 percent.
"The central bank will probably be keen to prevent the Taiwan dollar's appreciation against currencies of Taiwan exporters' competitors," Dariusz Kowalczyk, investment strategist at CFC Securities Ltd, said in Hong Kong. "The Taiwan dollar will come under pressure."
The central bank may not want its currency to rise after the nation's second trade deficit of the year.
The Ministry of Finance on April 7 said exports rose 6.9 percent last month from a year earlier to US$15.8 billion, while imports increased 14.9 percent to US$16.2 billion, leaving a trade deficit of US$399 million.
From the customer’s perspective, car rental is a straightforward business. The only uncertainty is whether the hire company will charge you for the scratch they discover when you hand back the vehicle. Hertz Global Holdings Inc’s bankruptcy protection filing on Friday last week was a reminder that today even the simplest business models are underpinned by a lot more financial complexity than meets the eye. The proximate cause of Hertz’s demise was of course the sudden collapse in bookings caused by COVID-19 travel restrictions. The company’s monthly revenue last month fell 73 percent year-on-year, a shortfall that even the most resilient
Uber Technologies Inc, Lyft Inc and Airbnb Inc have slashed thousands of jobs. Salesforce.com Inc and Visa Inc are letting employees work remotely for months; Twitter Inc and Square Inc are allowing them to do so for good. For the companies’ hometown of San Francisco, the moves are early signs of a dire blow. In a city with a long history of booms, busts and natural calamities, the COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly upended nearly a decade of prosperity. While municipalities across the US are grappling with economic fallout from the virus, San Francisco stands to take a deeper hit given its high
BULK PURCHASE: The French chain and Hong Kong-based Dairy Farm International reached a deal covering 224 stores, which is expected to be finalized by year’s end Carrefour SA yesterday announced it would acquire Wellcome Taiwan Co (惠康百貨) for 97 million euros (US$108.33 million), and bring all the Wellcome supermarkets (頂好超市) and Jasons Market Place stores nationwide under its banner within 12 months of the deal closing. The France-based hypermarket chain reached an agreement with Hong Kong-based Dairy Farm International Holdings (牛奶國際控股), the pan-Asian retailer that launched Wellcome Taiwan in 1987. The transaction involves 199 Wellcome supermarkets, which have average sales areas of 420m2 and 25 high-end Jasons Market Place stores, which have an average sales area of 820m2, as well as a warehouse in Taoyuan, Carrefour Taiwan (家樂福)
‘ONE-STOP SHOP’: A Miaoli official said that the factory in the Jhunan section of the Hsinchu Science Park would create more than 1,000 jobs and boost prosperity A new high-end IC packaging and testing plant planned by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in Miaoli County is expected to start operations in the middle of next year, Miaoli County Commissioner Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) said. Hsu wrote on Facebook that TSMC, the world’s largest pure wafer foundry operator, would invest NT$303.2 billion (US$10.1 billion) to build the plant, the largest-ever single investment in Taiwan. However, TSMC declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal, while a company board meeting on May 12 approved a spending plan worth NT$168.2 billion as part of its investment plans. Construction of the
RSS