Funds managed by the Bureau of Labor Funds lost about NT$64.1 billion (US$2.06 billion) in the first quarter of this year, as global market volatility fueled by tariff threats from the administration of US President Donald Trump weighed on performance, the bureau said.
The funds lost NT$171.6 billion in March alone, wiping out a profit of NT$107.5 billion from the first two months and leaving a loss of NT$64.1 billion for the first quarter, the bureau said.
That amounted to a minus-0.94 percent return in the first quarter, it said.
Photo: Lee Chin-hui, Taipei Times
Amid uncertainty over US tariffs, the TAIEX plunged 10.15 percent in the first quarter, while the MSCI All Country World Index dropped 1.32 percent.
The bureau said it allocated 42.01 percent of its funds to domestic markets and 57.99 percent to overseas investments.
The combined value of the funds managed by the bureau, including the Labor Pension Fund, the Labor Retirement Fund, the Labor Insurance Fund, the Employment Insurance Fund and the Arrear Wage Payment Fund, totaled about NT$7.24 trillion as of the end of March.
The new Labor Pension Fund, launched in 2015, was the largest of the funds at NT$4.79 trillion as of March, with a return of minus-0.74 percent in the first quarter, the bureau said.
Meanwhile, the Labor Retirement Fund, in place since 1984, held NT$1.08 trillion in assets at the end of March and posted a return of minus-1.88 percent in the first quarter, it said.
The bureau said it would monitor the impact of US tariff policies and rising inflation on the markets, and adjust its investment strategies to improve returns.
The Bureau of Public Service Pension Fund said the Public Service Pension Fund managed by the bureau reported a loss of NT$25.09 billion in the first quarter, with a return of minus-2.48 percent.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
RSS