The nation’s foreign exchange reserves last month decreased by US$1.08 billion to US$567.02 billion, the central bank said in a statement yesterday.
Foreign exchange reserves have fallen for four consecutive months, as the net outflow of foreign capital offset returns from the bank’s management of reserve assets, data showed.
Exchange rate shifts of other reserve currencies against the US dollar and the central bank stepping in to slow the local currency’s depreciation were also factors behind the decrease in foreign exchange reserves, the bank said.
Photo: REUTERS
Based on the bank’s tallies, the euro fell 0.65 percent against the US dollar last month on a monthly basis, the pound declined 0.6 percent, the Canadian dollar dropped 1.03 percent and the yen shed 3.47 percent.
However, the Australian dollar rose 0.34 percent and the yuan strengthened 0.08 percent against the greenback, the bank’s data showed.
The central bank said it intervened last month to slow the effect of volatile capital flows on the New Taiwan dollar, which ended the month down 1.66 percent against the US dollar.
Due to price corrections, the market value of securities investments and deposits held by foreign portfolio investors fell to US$713 billion last month, equivalent to 126 percent of foreign exchange reserves, compared with US$729 billion and a ratio of 128 percent the previous month, the bank said.
Foreign fund outflows totaled US$7 billion last month according to the central bank measure, and about US$1.3 billion based on the Financial Supervisory Commission’s (FSC) tallies, with the disparity due to the central bank including profit remittances abroad in its data.
Amid geopolitical and macroeconomic concerns, foreign investors have over the past few months reduced their holdings in emerging markets, including Taiwanese equities, the FSC said in a separate report.
Foreign investors sold a net NT$138.89 billion (US$4.29 billion) of local shares last month after a net selling of NT$41.18 billion in March, the commission said.
Overall, foreign investors net sold NT$70.21 billion of Taiwanese equities in the first four months of the year, the commission said.
Taiwan still registered foreign fund inflows of NT$13.92 billion in the first four months, the highest for the same period in five years, it said.
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