The New Taiwan dollar may have to depreciate by another 10 percent against the US dollar if the government wants to increase the nation’s export competitiveness, bank officials said.
As export orders continue to shrink on faltering overseas demand, many Asian countries have allowed their currencies to fall in an attempt to revive exports, officials said.
The NT dollar has fallen by a smaller degree compared with other currencies in the region, they said.
A state-run bank official said Taiwan could follow the trend, as even China has allowed the yuan to depreciate to boost its exports.
The South Korean won has depreciated by 37 percent against the US dollar so far this year, while the Australian and New Zealand currencies are down by more than 30 percent and 26 percent respectively.
In Taipei trading yesterday, the NT dollar fell NT$0.022 to close at NT$33.55, a five-week low against the US currency.
The expected slowdown in exports is “weighing on the currency,” said David Cohen, director of Asian forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore. “Taiwan is in the same boat with [South] Korea and Japan,” with exports slowing.
The NT dollar has been fluctuating within a narrow range recently and has depreciated by 3.4 percent so far this year as a result of the central bank’s intervention to stabilize the local currency.
Currency dealers said the central bank was sticking to its old policy of ensuring a stable currency despite the global financial storm.
But with their Asian rivals, especially South Korea, allowing their currencies to depreciate to shore up exports, dealers warned that Taiwanese exporters may suffer if the NT dollar remained high.
If the government wants to protect exports, allowing the NT dollar to fall by a further 10 percent would still be a reasonable range, they said.
Although the central bank has continued lowering its benchmark interest rate and moved its fourth-quarter board meeting ahead of the scheduled date to next Thursday, dealers said the economy had shown no signs of recovering, adding that the central bank needed to make better use of monetary policy to stimulate the economy.
They said if Asian currencies continued to depreciate and the central bank allowed the NT dollar to fall, the local currency could fall to NT$34 against the greenback by the end of the year.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS