Taiwan’s Forex Reserves Hit Record High of US$400.9B. in November

Taipei, Dec. 6, 2012 (CENS)--Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves increased US$1.74 billion from a month earlier to a record high of US$400.956 billion in November, exceeding US$400 billion again in 14 months, according to the central bank here.

A senior official at the central bank indicated that the increase in forex reserves in November came mainly from the net inflow of US$1.262 billion in foreign funds during the month, revenue from forex investments by the central bank, and additional book income from the bank’s holdings of the euro, which appreciated in value against the greenback.

In the same month foreign investors overbought shares worth of NT$42.757 billion (US$1.43 billion) in Taiwan’s stock market and at the end of the month bonds, securities, and NT-dollar deposits held by foreigners totaled US$218.7 billion, accounting for 55% of the island’s forex reserves, with the percentage hitting a new high of its kind in eight months.

In the first 11 months the increase in forex reserves totaled US$15.41 billion, higher than the corresponding figure of last year.

In addition to Taiwan, Asia’s other three little dragons all saw monthly rise in forex reserves in November, with South Korea’s grow US$1.7 billion, Hong Kong US$1 billion and Singapore US$2.2 billion.

At the end of November Taiwan remained the world’s fourth largest forex reserves holder, next to China, Japan and Russia, which held US$3.2851 trillion, US$1.1968 trillion and US$461.9 billion, respectively.