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.
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) largely omitted mention of its controversial Mate 60 smartphone series at a grand showcase of its new consumer products yesterday. The Shenzhen-based company would increase smartphone production in response to demand, said consumer division chief Richard Yu (余承東), without naming the handset triggering that surge. The Mate 60 Pro earned international notoriety with its advanced made-in-China processor last month, causing concern in Washington about Huawei’s progress toward developing in-house chipmaking capabilities despite US trade curbs. Huawei’s new phones have fired up the company’s sales and were among the top sellers in China in the week before Apple Inc’s
SLUMP: The electronics, machinery and traditional industries posted the largest decline in the past year; overall, sectors showed gains over the previous month Taiwan’s industrial production index decreased 10.53 percent year-on-year to 91.38 last month, falling for a 15th consecutive month on an annual basis, as weak global economic growth continued to weigh on end-market demand and investment momentum, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Saturday. The industrial production index gauges output in Taiwan’s four main industries: manufacturing, electricity and gas supply, water supply, and mining and quarrying. Last month’s decline was the smallest contraction since March when the index dropped 16.03 percent from a year earlier. On a monthly basis, the index rose 7.28 percent, marking a second straight month of improvement,
US-based tech giant Google said yesterday that its efforts to build four underseas cables to connect Taiwan with the world had created more than 64,000 jobs and generated about US$26 billion in GDP for Taiwan as of 2021. The US company has transformed Taiwan into a strategic cloud infrastructure hub in the world. The four undersea cables are part of the company’s investments in cloud infrastructure in Taiwan, and on the back of the undersea cables, a data center and a Google Cloud Region, which is a geographic area in which Google provides infrastructure and services for deploying applications, Google said in
SHOPPING SPREE: The wholesale sector has lagged behind as consumer goods spending has risen, with food and beverage spending hitting almost NT$90 billion Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 4.3 percent and 14.3 percent respectively from a year earlier, while sales in the wholesale sector fell for a 10th straight month and declined 5 percent annually, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Saturday. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales would retain growth momentum this month due to the opening of new shopping malls and the Mid-Autumn Festival. However, the wholesale sector is predicted to see sales drop for another month on an annual basis, as end-market demand remains weak and inventory
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