The central bank yesterday said it bought US$13 billion more US dollars than it sold in the first half of the year to prevent the New Taiwan dollar from appreciating too much.
In a report submitted to the Legislative Yuan, the central bank said it bought US$13.25 billion more of the greenback than it sold from January to June to stabilize the exchange rate with the NT dollar and smooth volatility on the local foreign exchange market.
The report came out before central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) attended a hearing of the Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee tomorrow.
Photo: CNA
In the six-month period, the US dollar fell 9.63 percent against the NT dollar after worries rose over uncertainties related to the policies of US President Donald Trump after he took office in January. As a result, the US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against the currencies of Washington’s six major trading partners, fell by 10.70 percent, the central bank said.
The US dollar’s weakness also reflected large funds moved by foreign institutional investors into the local market, which boosted the US dollar supply, it said.
The losses suffered by the US dollar appeared more apparent in May, when the central bank rushed to buy the greenback to cap the NT dollar’s appreciation, with the purchases boosting Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves by about US$10.12 billion, the fifth-largest monthly increase in history.
The central bank previously said that the large purchase was intended to slow down the US dollar’s weakness in May.
Market watchers said that without the central bank’s intervention, the US dollar would have fallen further.
However, the central bank said it has adopted a two-way market intervention strategy, indicating that if the US dollar rises sharply, it would sell greenbacks to prevent the NT dollar from falling too much.
The central bank said that as of Tuesday, the US dollar had fallen 6.95 percent this year against the NT dollar, with foreign institutional investors tending to make net purchases on the local stock market.
It added that the stronger NT dollar reflects the sound economic fundamentals of the country.
The NT dollar’s fluctuations were still smaller than those of other major currencies such as the euro, the yen and the won, it said.
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) said it has come up with a new pathway to shorten its gap with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), potentially achieving a breakthrough in making advanced semiconductors without cutting-edge equipment. Right now there is about a five-year gap between what TSMC is capable of and what Huawei, together with its manufacturing partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯), can produce. Huawei is to start making 1.4-nanometer chips by 2031 with its own “LogicFolding” technology, Huawei semiconductor chief He Tingbo (何庭波) said in a rare public appearance during a chip conference yesterday, while TSMC has
RSS