A
The Treasury Department has a warning for the emerging world: The export-your-way-to-prosperity template has fallen out of favor. Once thought to be in US interests as a way of getting plentiful cheap goods this model of development is now meeting more skepticism. The message for Asia should be loud and clear, even if some economies got a pass last week.
In its semiannual assessment of trading partners’ foreign-exchange policies, Treasury stopped short of labeling Taiwan, Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators, even though they met the criteria. In normal times, they would have been branded with a Scarlet M for deliberately holding their currencies down. But officials couldn’t determine whether their less-than-ideal practices were done to seek a trade advantage, or simply to buttress markets and alleviate recession. The pandemic skewed capital flows globally, and many countries the US among them responded in kind. This time, the trio got away with a ra
No promise of rate freeze: central bank
INFLATION RISKS: The bank has no intention of hiking rates for the time being, but it cannot commit to a rate freeze, central bank governor Yang Chin-long said
By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter
Central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) yesterday declined to commit to an interest rate freeze for the next two years, unlike the bank’s major global peers, saying the bank has to factor in inflation risks and other economic data when setting policy.
Yang’s remarks came as inflationary pressures build up around the world amid an improving global economy and continued monetary easing.
NT dollar gains as US hints at valuation pressure
TREASURY REPORT: A US government report urging the central bank to curtail its foreign-exchange intervention, coupled with soaring exports, might lift the NT dollar
Bloomberg
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday posted its biggest daily advance since December last year after a report by the US Department of the Treasury last week hinted that US President Joe Biden’s administration could exert greater pressure on Taiwan’s central bank to allow the local currency to appreciate.
The NT dollar rose 0.5 percent to close at NT$28.205 against the greenback, and was emerging Asia’s best-performing currency for the day.