The government plans to auction NT$110 billion (US$3.3 billion) in bonds and NT$60 billion in treasury bills in the first quarter of next year to help finance government spending, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Chen Shueh-hsiang (陳雪香), deputy director of the ministry’s National Treasury Agency, told a media briefing that it would sell between NT$430 billion and NT$440 billion in bonds next year, compared with NT$410 billion in bonds this year.
The government also plans to sell NT$160 billion in treasury bills next year, Chen said.
The Cabinet last month approved a special budget of NT$85.7 billion for consumer vouchers to be issued next month.
The government hopes to stimulate domestic consumption to compensate for slowing exports. The Cabinet has also approved a NT$400 billion infrastructure spending plan for the next four years to boost economic growth.
SCHEDULE
Based on the ministry’s plan, the government will auction NT$40 billion in five-year notes on Jan. 16, NT$30 billion in 20-year bonds on Feb. 11 and another NT$40 billion in 10-year securities on March 2, Chen said.
The government will also sell NT$20 billion in 91-day treasury bills on Jan. 5, NT$20 billion in 182-day bills on Feb. 19 and NT$20 billion in 273-day bills on March 3, Chen said.
By unveiling the auction plans early, the ministry said it hoped to set a benchmark for both bonds and treasury bills and give interested investors time to plan their portfolios.
The plans confirmed the government’s intention to increase borrowing in order to finance various stimulus measures amid the economic downturn.
The government needs NT$400 billion to pay existing debts and another NT$176.15 billion in special funding for the consumer vouchers and to fund flood control measures and other infrastructure projects next year.
The figures do not include the proposed NT$165 billion budget deficit for next fiscal year.
Altogether, the nation’s total debt stands at NT$4.1 trillion, or 31.6 percent of GNP, which is well below the 40-percent ceiling, Chen said.
Part of the borrowing would not have to be realized if the stimulus measures lagged or tax revenues were greater than expected, Chen said.
YESTERDAY’S AUCTION
Meanwhile, the government sold NT$40 billion (US$1.2 billion) in 10-year bonds yesterday at a yield of 1.404 percent.
The yield at the previous sale on Sept. 19 was 2.243 percent.
Yesterday’s auction drew bids equal to 1.97 times the debt on offer, compared with 1.33 times at the last auction, the central bank said in a statement yesterday.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”