Taiwan’s central bank said it would rein in limits on the use of exchange-rate derivatives to combat currency speculation by foreigners.
Banks’ holdings of non--deliverable forwards and options in the New Taiwan dollar will be limited to 20 percent of their positions in the local currency with immediate effect, the central bank said in an e-mailed statement. The ceiling had previously been a third.
Deliverable forwards are exempt from the restrictions as they are used by local companies to protect earnings against exchange-rate fluctuations, it said.
The change is designed “to maintain order in the currency market and to prevent foreign speculative capital from intervening in the market,” the statement said.
The NT dollar has appreciated 3.5 percent to NT$30.425 versus the greenback in the past month, Asia’s best performance, and it touched a 13-year high of NT$29.481 yesterday. The central bank has intervened in the foreign-exchange market on most days for more than six months to check appreciation that may hurt exports, according to currency traders who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Taiwan last month restored curbs on foreign investment in its debt, joining South Korea, Thailand and Brazil in seeking to limit currency gains that threaten export growth. Foreign funds can invest only up to 30 percent of their portfolio in government bonds and money-market products, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Nov. 9, reintroducing limits that were scrapped in 1995.
Developing economies have stepped up attempts to curb volatility in their currencies as near-zero interest rates in the US and Japan spur demand for higher-yielding emerging-market bonds and equities.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained