The New Taiwan dollar turned in a strong performance yesterday, gaining 0.6 percent, or NT$0.215, to NT$34.60 against its US counterpart at the close of trading, the highest level in almost three weeks, dealers said.
The NT dollar opened at NT$34.815 and fluctuated between NT$34.54 and NT$34.87 on what traders called a technical rebound that might last until the end of this month.
A currency dealer linked the NT dollar’s upturn to a sharper increase by the South Korean won, whose showing is widely considered a critical factor in valuating the NT dollar.
“For the foreseeable future, the two currencies will remain locked in a tight race in a bid to vie for export orders amid the downturn,” the dealer said by telephone on condition of anonymity.
Turnover was US$1.213 billion on Taipei Forex and the amount stood at US$397.5 million on the smaller Cosmos Foreign Exchange, leaving an aggregated volume of US$1.61 billion, the two companies data showed.
The dealer dismissed reports the NT dollar’s increase was due to the narrowing decline in exports last month, noting the data showed foreign trade remained drab despite rush orders from China. He believed the NT dollar would trade between NT$34.5 and NT$35 this month and head down to mirror the recession.
“There is no overnight fix for economic woes,” the dealer said.
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
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