Taiwan's Foreign-Currency Deposits Hit Record High of NT$3.54 Trillion as of February

Taiwan's banks held foreign currency deposits totaling a record high of NT$3.54 trillion (US$118 billion) in February, surging NT$90.1 billion (US$3 billion) from a month earlier, according to the statistics released by the central bank.

Y. T. Chen, deputy director general of Economic Research Dept. of the central bank, indicates that the increase in foreign currency deposits in February came mainly from the receipts of goods sold by enterprises that accounted for NT$50 billion (US$1.67 billion) of the total increase, with the remaining NT$40 billion (US$1.33 billion) from individuals.

After Chinese New Year holidays, domestic banks saw more than NT$200 billion (US$6.67 billion) return to deposit accounts in February and a portion of which was put into renminbi (RMB) accounts, hence boosting foreign-currency deposits in the month.

At the end of January RMB deposits of the designated domestic banking units (DBUs) accounted for 24% of the total foreign currency deposits, with the ratio equal to that of Hong Kong and higher than that of Singapore.

In February the RMB deposits held by DBUs rose 26.752 billion RMB or about NT$130 billion (US$4.33 billion) from a month earlier to 192.571 billion RMB or about NT$925 billion (US$30.83 billion). (JL)