The Bank of Japan has become the single biggest holder of domestic government bonds for the first time, data showed yesterday, underscoring the scale of its monetary easing program.
The central bank has been aggressively buying Japanese government bonds since unveiling a stimulus scheme in April last year as part of Tokyo’s wider bid to kickstart the world’s No. 3 economy.
Data supplied by the central bank showed it had edged out the insurance sector to hold ￥201 trillion (US$1.97 trillion) in Japanese government bonds, or 20.1 percent of the total, at the end of March.
Insurers collectively held 19.3 percent of Japan’s outstanding debt. Pension funds and individuals were among the other holders of the country’s low-yielding government debt.
The vast majority of the government’s debt is held domestically, which is why Japan has not faced the same kind of pressure from foreign creditors as Greece and other nations did at the height of the eurozone debt crisis two years ago.
However, the IMF has led calls for Japan to tame its public debt — one of the world’s heaviest burdens at more than twice the size of the economy.
Tokyo is grappling with the spiraling healthcare and social security costs in a rapidly ageing nation.
In a bid to boost Japan’s US$1.26 trillion public pension fund — the world’s biggest — Tokyo is eyeing a shift away from a bond-heavy portfolio into stocks and other riskier assets in search of higher returns.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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