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.
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
RSS