Taiwan’s monetary supply indicators saw mixed developments last month from a year earlier as foreign fund inflows raised the broad M2 gauge while continued capital flight from time deposits to passbook accounts slowed M1B growth, the central bank said yesterday.
M2, the broad monetary gauge tied to a nation’s economic performance as it includes time deposits, time savings deposits, foreign currency deposits, mutual funds and M1B, rose 4.66 percent last month from the year-earlier level on net foreign fund inflows, Chen E-dawn (陳一端), deputy chief of the central bank’s economic research department, told a media briefing.
Chen refused to comment on foreign fund movements except to say that the local currency gained 2.2 percent against its US counterpart last month alone. Central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) recently quoted a US economist as saying the quantitative easing by US and European central banks drove global funds to Asian markets and boosted their currencies.
Net foreign fund inflow amounted to US$2.35 billion last month, the highest in five months and reversing two consecutive months of net outflows in July and August, the Financial Supervisory Commission’s data showed.
The narrower M1B reading, which includes cash and cash equivalents, increased 12.15 percent year-on-year last month, slowing for the ninth straight month as more funds flowed to passbook deposits, Chen said.
Demand deposits rose 11.95 percent last month to a record high of NT$10.02 trillion (US$328.7 billion) at the end of last month, Chen said. She declined to comment on concerns the trend may mean weaker growth momentum for the local bourse, saying funds wired to stock delivery accounts picked up NT$67 billion last month to a new high of NT$1.3 trillion on Sept. 30.
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