Japanese Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said the government has not decided whether to sell more 30-year bonds for the year through March of next year because it hasn't confirmed if investor demand is strong enough.
"We would like to sell more 30-year bonds," Shiokawa said at a press conference in Sendai in northern Japan.
If the finance ministry fails to see sufficient demand within a reasonable period, however, he said "we don't necessarily need to issue more 30-year debt."
The Ministry of Finance last week said it will increase sales of 20-year bonds by ¥600 billion to ¥5.4 trillion in the current fiscal year.
Shiokawa said the ministry based its decision on growing demand from investors such as life insurance companies who want to earn higher yields than on 10 year bonds.
Japanese government bonds due in 2013 rose yesterday, pushing yields down 3 basis points to 0.87 percent, according to Japan Bond Trading Co.
For the week, benchmark yields fell 9 basis points, the biggest weekly decline since November.
A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
The finance minister also said he sees no need for the government to draft an extra budget and increase state spending this fiscal year to boost economic growth.
"The Japanese economy has somewhat bottomed and is beginning to improve," Shiokawa said.
"Given the current situation, there is no need for an extra budget," he added.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has pledged to eliminate unneeded spending and stop the expansion of Japan's public debt, which will reach ¥693 trillion in March of next year, equivalent to 140 percent of GDP.
Shiokawa repeated that Japan's growth may exceed government projections of 0.6 percent in the current fiscal year.
Japan this week said it has raised its economic outlook for the first time in five months, citing rising stock prices, growth in demand for exports, and improvement in unemployment rates.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
RSS