《TAIPEI TIMES》 Taiwan’s forex reserves register new record high

/ Staff writer, with CNA

The nation’s foreign exchange reserves hit a new record at the end of last month to register the seventh consecutive month of growth, the central bank said on Friday.

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The reserves rose US$837 million from a month earlier to US$561.116 billion as of the end of last month, central bank data showed.

The figure benefited from an increase in returns from the management of the bank’s portfolios, it said.

Foreign net outflow was US$462 million last month, the bank said.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co （台積電） distributing a dividend might have contributed to the outflow, it said.

The value of foreign investors’ holdings of locally listed stocks and bonds and New Taiwan dollar-denominated deposits was US$538.9 billion, the bank said.

The holdings represented 96 percent of the nation’s foreign exchange reserves last month, it said.

The bank said South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves last month rose about US$500 million from a month earlier to US$402.2 billion, while Malaysia had US$103.1 billion of reserves.

Commenting on the US Federal Reserve hiking its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points last week, Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai （蔡炯民） said the increase meets market predictions.

Tsai said that interest rate hikes in many nations are coming to an end, which would redirect the focus of financial markets to changes in the economy and corporate performance.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES