Chinese yuan deposits held by local banks last month declined 0.91 percent to 225.32 billion yuan (US$34.66 billion), shrinking for a fourth consecutive month, as corporate and retail clients adjusted asset portfolios amid inflation expectations and geopolitical tensions, the central bank said on Tuesday.
The decrease was related to personal and corporate decisions regarding asset allocation strategies, and was not connected to political circumstances, the bank said.
Major Asian currencies have been hit hard this year, partly by US Federal Reserve rate hike expectations and the Japanese yen weakening 10.11 percent against the US dollar, it said.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
The New Taiwan dollar fared better with a 5.27 percent correction, while the Chinese yuan held firm with a 0.04 percent dip, making it the best performer in the region, it said.
Yuan deposits at domestic banking units dropped 1.49 percent to 196.76 billion yuan after retail and corporate clients trimmed positions, the central bank said, adding that a major electronics firm had used yuan deposits for goods payments.
Yuan deposits at offshore banking units rose 3.24 percent to 28.56 billion yuan after some firms converted US dollar deposits into yuan holdings to meet yuan settlement needs, the bank said.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
A man walks past real-estate advertisements outside a house in Taipei yesterday. The central bank yesterday said it plans to establish an “Inflation-at-Risk” gauge as a supplementary tool for observing inflation, as policymakers express wish to communicate more effectively with the public when making inflation forecasts.
ABOVE LEGAL REQUIREMENT: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is prepared if LNG supply is disrupted, with more than the legal requirement of 11 days of inventory Taiwan has largely secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through May and arranged about half of June’s supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28, Taiwan’s LNG inventories have remained more than 12 days, exceeding the legal requirement of 11 days, indicating no major supply concerns for domestic gas and electricity, Kung said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. The ministry aims to increase the figure to 14 days by the end of next year, he said. While one or two LNG or crude oil shipments for May
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS