Taiwan ranked the sixth-largest net creditor in the world last year, down one spot from 2023, in the wake of a strong showing by the local stock market, which boosted the nation’s liabilities and pushed down its net international investment position (NIIP), the central bank said on Friday.
Taiwan’s external financial assets totaled US$3.03 trillion at the end of last year, up US$148.17 billion, or 5.1 percent, from a year earlier, central bank data showed.
The country’s external financial liabilities reached US$1.48 trillion, up US$301.15 billion, or 25.6 percent, from a year earlier, which the central bank attributed to the value of equities owned by foreign institutional investors.
Photo: CNA
The difference between Taiwan’s external financial assets and liabilities at the end of last year reached US$1.56 trillion, down US$152.98 billion, or 9 percent from a year earlier, positioning Taiwan as the world’s sixth-biggest net creditor, the data showed.
A country’s international investment position is the balance sheet of residents’ financial assets held in the rest of the world and liabilities to the rest of the world.
The NIIP is the difference between a country’s external financial assets and its external financial liabilities.
Germany was the No. 1 net creditor, with an NIIP of about US$3.64 trillion as of the end of last year, ahead of Japan at US$3.49 trillion, China at US$3.3 trillion, Hong Kong at US$2.04 trillion and Norway at US$1.74 trillion, the central bank said.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
Asian e-commerce giant Shein’s (希音) decision to set up shop in a historic Parisian department store has ruffled feathers in the fashion capital. Anger has been boiling since Shein announced last week that it would open its first permanent physical store next month at BHV Marais, an iconic building that has stood across from Paris City Hall since 1856. The move prompted some French brands to announce they would leave BHV Marais, but the department store had already been losing tenants over late payments. Aime cosmetics line cofounder Mathilde Lacombe, whose brand was among those that decided to leave following
RSS