The nation’s financial-account deficit continued to trend higher for the 24th consecutive quarter last quarter, central bank balance of payments (BOP) data showed.
The financial account saw net fund outflows of US$15.4 billion in the April-to-June quarter, rising US$6.2 billion from a year earlier as the public and life insurers increased their foreign investments, the central bank said yesterday.
Of the financial accounts, direct and portfolio investment saw net outflows of US$2.39 billion and US$15.21 billion respectively, the result of more bond investments abroad by local insurance firms and an increase in investment in foreign mutual funds by the public, it said.
Outflows in financial derivatives decreased by US$690 billion on a yearly basis last quarter, mainly because of gains on disposal of financial derivatives received by non-bank financial corporations, it said.
The central bank said that a country like Taiwan, which records a surplus in current account, tends to see an outflow in financial accounts.
The bank named several other countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Germany, which faced a similar situation.
The latest BOP statistics, which summarize a nation’s economic transactions with the rest of the world, showed that the current-account surplus reached US$17.13 billion last quarter, down from the previous quarter’s US$20.04 billion, but up from the prior year’s US$15.77 billion.
Of current accounts, the goods-trade surplus narrowed to US$17.01 billion, down by US$200 million on a yearly basis. That was because exports declined US$8.62 billion year on year — reflecting weak global demand and the effects of overcapacity in China and its strategy of import substitution — while imports also decreased by US$8.42 billion to US$59.85 billion, the central bank said.
The latest BOP statistics showed that reserve assets increased US$3.15 billion last quarter, compared with rises of US$3.85 billion in the first quarter and US$4.17 billion a year earlier.
In addition, the latest statistics indicated that the deficit in tourism earnings widened to US$671 million in the second quarter, from US$202 million in the previous quarter, as Taiwanese tourists spent US$3.99 billion abroad compared with the US$3.33 billion spent by foreign visitors to the nation, the central bank said.
The total number of foreign visitors to Taiwan increased 2.2 percent year-on-year last quarter, of which tourists from Japan and South Korea showed the greatest growth of 14.5 percent and 33.5 percent respectively, followed by a 7.7 percent increase in North American visitors and a 4.6 percent rise in European tourists.
However, the number of Chinese tourists fell by 6.3 percent from a year earlier.
Over the period, the number of Chinese visitors on tour groups fell 21.5 percent, while those on independent itineraries rose 13.6 percent, data showed.
“The outcome shows that Chinese tourists have greater spending power and the rise in visitors from other countries was not enough to offset their absence,” central bank Economic Research Department Deputy Director Lin Shu-hua (林淑華) said at a news conference.
Additional reporting by CNA
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