Taiwan's Forex Reserves Again Hit Record High of US$423.45B. in June

Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves increased  US$1.803 billion from a month earlier to a seventh consecutive monthly record high of US$423.454 billion as of the end of June, according to the central bank.

Such increase in June was mainly due to the  net inflow of US$3.564 billion or about NT$106.7 billion in foreign funds during the month, the 10th consecutive monthly inflow ever, with the net inflow totaling US$16.513 billion in the first six months.

Other incomes also contributed to the rise of forex reserves in June, including the interest income of the reserves and additional book income from the central bank's holdings of the euro, the British pound, the Australian dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the Japanese yen, which appreciated, respectively, 0.29%, 1.61%, 0.98%, 1.4% and 0.26% against the greenback.

At the end of June Taiwan's securities and NT- dollar deposits held by foreigners totaled US$301.6 billion, for 71% of the foreign reserves, with both the value and ratio being the highest of their kinds on record.

In Q1 the listed companies in Taiwan posted combined pretax profits of NT$379.5 billion (US$12.65 billion), up 9.8% year on year.

In H1 foreign investors purchased shares in Taiwan's bourse totaling NT$2.7 trillion (US$90 billion) and sold shares of NT$2.41 trillion (US$80.33 billion), with over-purchase of about NT$2.9 billion (US$96.67 million). (JL)