The US dollar yesterday continued its upward momentum against the New Taiwan dollar, hitting a more than three-year high against the local currency on expectations that the US Federal Reserve would continue to aggressively raise interest rates.
The US dollar closed up NT$0.163 at NT$31.293, its highest since Sept. 4, 2019.
The greenback attracted strong buying soon after the local foreign exchange market opened as investors rushed to pick up the currency, betting that the Fed would act aggressively in a policymaking meeting scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday next week, dealers said.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
The weakness of other regional currencies, including the yen, which fell to a new 24-year low, and the yuan, which breached the psychologically important 7 yuan per US dollar level, added more downward pressure on the NT dollar, dealers said.
Investors have been scrambling to move their funds out of Asia and into US dollar-denominated assets to take advantage of their higher interest rate yields, leading to the depreciation of global currencies against the greenback.
Expectations that the Fed would raise interest rates even higher next week were fueled after a higher-than-expected inflation report released on Tuesday and a stronger-than-expected retail sales report for last month released on Thursday, dealers said.
Over the week, the US dollar rose NT$0.398, or 1.3 percent, against the NT dollar, the eighth consecutive week of appreciation against the local currency.
Taiwan’s central bank appeared reluctant to intervene in the market to shore up the NT dollar because it was unlikely it could reverse the tide amid fund outflows, dealers said.
Some analysts believe that the US dollar trading above NT$31 would become a new normal and that the greenback could challenge NT$31.50 soon.
Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry chairman Larry Wei (魏燦文) said that if the US dollar were to rise further to above NT$32, it would help Taiwanese machinery exporters stay competitive against their Japanese competitors, who have benefited from a weakening yen.
Compared with a more than 11.6 percent drop in the NT dollar against the US dollar so far this year, the yen has tumbled about 25.8 percent, the association said, adding that the weakness of the Japanese currency has hurt the competitiveness of Taiwan’s machinery suppliers.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last