Asian currencies strengthened this week as European leaders agreed on measures to ease a regional debt crisis and data suggested the US housing market is recovering from a slump.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index rose on Friday by the most since Oct. 27 after EU President Herman Van Rompuy said bailout conditions tied to emergency loans for Spanish banks were relaxed and regional leaders ere looking at ways to bring down yields on bonds issued by Spain and Italy.
Led by a rising euro on Friday, the New Taiwan dollar continued its advance since Tuesday and closed the week up 0.2 percent against the US dollar at NT$29.90.
The strength of the euro came after the EU summit agreed to mobilize 120 billion euros (US$150 billion) to stimulate the ailing economy in the region, dealers said.
India’s rupee gained by the most in three years on Friday after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said reviving investor confidence was one of his top priorities. The currency tumbled 8.6 percent against the US dollar this quarter, leading declines in Asia.
The Asia Dollar Index climbed 0.8 percent this week to 115.22 in Hong Kong, trimming this quarter’s loss to 1.4 percent. South Korea’s won advanced 1 percent this week to 1,145.40 per US dollar and the Philippine peso rose 0.7 percent to 42.16, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The rupee jumped 2.7 percent to 55.6375, touching a one-week high of 55.6375 earlier.
US reports this week also showed that sales of new homes climbed to a two-year high in May, while housing prices declined in April at the slowest pace since November 2010. An improving real-estate market may spur spending in the US, the biggest buyer of Asian exports.
China’s yuan rose this week, trimming its biggest quarterly loss since a US dollar peg ended in 2005. It traded at 6.3541 per US dollar, 0.16 percent stronger than its June 21 close. It has dropped 0.9 percent since the end of March.
The peso jumped 3.2 percent since May, its biggest monthly gain since September 2010, as an improving economy attracted funds to the nation’s assets. The US$200 billion economy expanded 6.4 percent in the first quarter, the fastest pace since 2010, and is projected to expand by the same rate in the second, an economics official said.
Elsewhere, Malaysia’s ringgit rose 0.8 percent this week to 3.1688 per US dollar, Indonesia’s rupiah gained 0.1 percent to 9,430 and Thailand’s baht rose 0.1 percent to 31.74.
Shiina Ito has had fewer Chinese customers at her Tokyo jewelry shop since Beijing issued a travel warning in the wake of a diplomatic spat, but she said she was not concerned. A souring of Tokyo-Beijing relations this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan, has fueled concerns about the impact on the ritzy boutiques, noodle joints and hotels where holidaymakers spend their cash. However, businesses in Tokyo largely shrugged off any anxiety. “Since there are fewer Chinese customers, it’s become a bit easier for Japanese shoppers to visit, so our sales haven’t really dropped,” Ito
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and the company’s former chairman, Mark Liu (劉德音), both received the Robert N. Noyce Award -- the semiconductor industry’s highest honor -- in San Jose, California, on Thursday (local time). Speaking at the award event, Liu, who retired last year, expressed gratitude to his wife, his dissertation advisor at the University of California, Berkeley, his supervisors at AT&T Bell Laboratories -- where he worked on optical fiber communication systems before joining TSMC, TSMC partners, and industry colleagues. Liu said that working alongside TSMC
TECHNOLOGY DAY: The Taiwanese firm is also setting up a joint venture with Alphabet Inc on robots and plans to establish a firm in Japan to produce Model A EVs Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday announced a collaboration with ChatGPT developer OpenAI to build next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and strengthen its local supply chain in the US to accelerate the deployment of advanced AI systems. Building such an infrastructure in the US is crucial for strengthening local supply chains and supporting the US in maintaining its leading position in the AI domain, Hon Hai said in a statement. Through the collaboration, OpenAI would share its insights into emerging hardware needs in the AI industry with Hon Hai to support the company’s design and development work, as well
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