Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves totaled US$577.58 billion late last month, up US$9.06 billion from the previous month on the back of investment returns and favorable currency movements, the central bank said yesterday.
The balance meant Taiwan remained the fourth-largest holder of foreign-exchange reserves, trailing only China, Japan and Switzerland.
“The foreign exchange market was relatively quiet in January, compared with this month, when US President Donald Trump’s tariff policy with Canada, Mexico and China unnerved investors,” Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡烱民) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
The New Taiwan dollar on Monday touched NT$33 against the greenback amid panic selling of local shares as investors sought a safe haven in the US dollar before Washington’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China took effect.
Trump later announced a 30-day delay after Mexico and Canada agreed to step up border controls to curb illegal immigrants.
The central bank is confident it can maintain order and stability in the local currency market, helped by its plentiful foreign-exchange reserves and demand for the NT dollar by exporters, Tsai said.
Many exporters joined the market on Monday to sell the US dollars they had accumulated from trade, he said, adding that the central bank also intervened to slow volatility.
US tariffs might not necessarily weigh on the local currency, although Trump’s evasive trade stance is adding difficulty to the central bank’s formation of world views, Tsai said.
The emergence of DeepSeek, a relatively low-cost, but efficient Chinese artificial intelligence model, also created a big splash across global financial markets, as it sparked concern that orders at Nvidia Corp could slow, analysts said.
Dozens of Taiwanese firms collaborate with Nvidia.
As of the end of last month, foreign investors held US$864.8 billion of local stocks and debt, equivalent to 150 percent of Taiwan’s foreign-exchange reserves, Tsai said, adding that both figures represent historic highs.
Foreign capital might flee Taiwan if Trump makes good on his pledge to impose tariffs on semiconductors, limiting profit for local suppliers, analysts have said.
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