Following a volatile week, the New Taiwan dollar yesterday dropped NT$0.29, or 0.97 percent, to close at the day’s low of NT$29.80 against the US dollar, in line with other major Asian currencies.
The NT$0.29 decline on Taipei Forex Inc represented the largest fall in a single day since Jan. 28, when it dropped by NT$0.31 against the greenback.
On the smaller Cosmos Foreign Exchange market, the NT dollar closed at NT$29.69 yesterday.
Turnover was US$2.05 billion yesterday, with US$1.45 billion on Taipei Forex and US$603 million on the Cosmos.
The NT dollar has fluctuated sharply over the past week, with the currency moving as high as NT$29.341 against the US dollar on Thursday, before dropping to the week’s low of NT$29.80 yesterday.
“The NT dollar still has room to further depreciate against the US dollar to match the depreciation of the Japanese yen and the South Korea won,” private think tank Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute (元大寶華綜合經濟研究院) said in a research note.
The yen yesterday weakened 2.51 percent to close at ¥101.37 against the US dollar, while the won fell 1.37 percent to 1,106.1 against the greenback, according to data provided by the central bank.
Yuanta-Polaris said the bank might want the NT dollar to fall further to help boost exports and maintain economic growth, in light of sluggish domestic demand.
The won fell to a three-month low at one point yesterday, a day after the Bank of Korea unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points.
However, the central bank said in a statement yesterday that the level of Taiwan’s interest rates were much lower than those in South Korea, an indication that the bank has no intention of joining Seoul and cutting its rates.
The bank’s comments came after former top Japanese currency official Eisuke Sakakibara, known as “Mr Yen,” a day earlier suggested that Taiwan could also adopt quantitative easing measures.
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],”
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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