The central bank yesterday pledged to continue “enhanced engagement” with the US after Washington on Friday placed Taipei on a list of countries being monitored for currency manipulation.
The bank said it has conducted several rounds of talks with US authorities on bilateral trade and currency since April last year, and clearly expressed its stance on the issues.
Citing the US Department of the Treasury’s latest semi-annual currency report covering last year, the bank said Washington agreed that the “productive discussions have helped develop a common understanding of the policy issues related to the Treasury’s concerns about Taiwan’s currency practices.”
Photo: CNA
“Over the next year, the central bank will continue its enhanced engagement with the US on currency issues,” it said, but did not comment on Taiwan’s performance regarding specific thresholds cited in the report.
The report placed Taiwan and Vietnam on a list of countries being monitored for currency manipulation.
The three thresholds the US uses to determine currency manipulation are: a bilateral goods and service trade surplus of at least US$15 billion, a current account surplus equivalent to 3 percent of GDP, and persistent, one-sided foreign-exchange interventions amounting to at least 2 percent of GDP.
According to the report, Taiwan’s bilateral trade surplus with the US and current account surplus were above the manipulation thresholds over the reporting period of the four quarters through December last year.
Taiwan recorded a US$40 billion bilateral goods trade surplus with the US last year, up from US$28 billion in 2020, and had a current account surplus of US$115 billion (14.8 percent of GDP), the report said.
Taiwan was not cited for excessive foreign-exchange interventions last year, when the New Taiwan dollar appreciated for a third straight year against the US dollar, by 2.95 percent.
Analysts said that the central bank intervened during most foreign-exchange trading sessions last year to limit the NT dollar’s gains, but the bank never admitted to it, saying only that it had a responsibility to combat volatility and maintain market stability.
This year, as the NT dollar has weakened against the greenback because of US Federal Reserve rate hikes to fight inflation, Taiwan’s central bank has stepped in to slow down the local currency’s depreciation, especially in March and April.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS