Yuan deposits held by local banks last month rose 0.1 percent to 235.37 billion yuan (US$35.73 billion), as corporate clients stayed virtually put and retail accounts trimmed positions, despite appreciation in the Chinese currency, the central bank said yesterday.
Yuan deposits at domestic banking units shrank 0.1 percent to 206.34 billion yuan, while deposits at offshore banking units gained 1.59 percent to 29.02 billion yuan, the bank said in a statement.
The central bank attributed the mild increase in deposits at offshore banking units to corporate clients making payments for commercial goods and realizing stock gains in the Chinese currency.
Photo: Bloomberg
On the other hand, the decline in deposits at domestic banking units reflected a further lack of interest among individual Taiwanese in yuan-based investment tools, the bank said.
Retail accounts terminated yuan deposits or switched to other instruments after the terms expired even though the Chinese currency has gained value against the greenback and interest rates have started to pick up, the bank said.
Interest rates for yuan time deposits of six months or longer rose from 2 percent to 2.2 percent last month, it said.
Meanwhile, interest rates offered by Bank of China’s (中國銀行) Taipei branch to local peers gained 16 to 33 basis points from September to more than 2.6 percent on average last month, it said.
Taiwanese investors have owned yuan deposits for quite a while and likely saw the rebound as a good opportunity to make a profit or stop losses, it said.
The bank declined to provide a forecast on the yuan in Taiwan, saying that investors would form opinions as they see fit.
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