Foreign investors warned against T$ speculation
Taiwan's central bank has warned foreign investors against speculating on the Taiwan dollar in a sign of the monetary authorities' growing concern at the currency's sharp rise against the US dollar.
In a highly unusual move, the bank called in all foreign institutional investors last week and issued a public appeal, urging them to purchase shares with the Taiwanese dollars they buy.
“The central bank has discovered that a minority of foreign investors have not invested in stocks after remitting funds in and exchanging them into T$ [Taiwanese dollars] but amassed overly large amounts of T$ savings,” the bank said. “The central bank reminds foreign investors that the use of funds must be in line with the goal of stock investment declared at the time of remittance.” George Chou, director-general of the bank's foreign exchange department, told reporters that foreign investors who bought Taiwanese dollars would be “encouraged” to invest immediately in the stock market or “go home”. If they failed to comply, the bank would continue to “communicate” with them every day.
The high-profile warning comes after a steep rise in Taiwan's currency, which in line with other Asian currencies has benefited from weakness in the US dollar. The Taiwanese dollar closed flat at T$31.75 to the US dollar on Friday after reaching a four-year high a day earlier.
Taiwan holds US$242.74bn (�183bn, ￡127bn) in foreign exchange reserves, the world's third largest, which could be deployed to tame further rises. The bank has a policy of “dynamic stability”, which aims to keep the currency in step with regional export competitors such as Japan and South Korea. But controlling the currency's movement became more difficult after the island liberalised market access for foreign portfolio investors in 2003.
Moreover, Taipei employs a more liberal system than South Korea as it allows foreign investors to remit funds without having to declare in advance in which securities the money is to be invested.
To prevent speculation, the bank asks individual foreign investors about the purpose of funds when it detects large inward remittances which do not immediately result in share purchases.
台湾央行警告：不要投机台币
台湾央行已警告外国投资者不要在新台币上进行投机。这一迹象表明，台湾货币当局对一问题越来越担忧：即新台币兑美元汇率急剧上涨。
上周，台湾央行作出了十分不寻常的举动，它召集了所有外国机构投资者并发出公开呼吁，要求它们用买入的新台币购买各种股票。
“央行发现，少数外国投资者汇进资金兑换成新台币后没有投资股票，而是积聚了数量过于庞大的新台币存款，”该央行说，“央行提醒外国投资者，资金的用途必须符合汇入时所宣称的股票投资目的，”台湾央行外汇局局长周阿定(George Chou)对记者表示，买入新台币的外国投资者将被“鼓励”立即投资股市，否则“回家”。如果外国投资者未能照办，台湾央行将继续每天与它们进行“沟通”。
在这一高调的警告发出之前，台湾货币出现急剧上涨，从美元走软中获益，从而与其它亚洲货币保持了一致的走势。周五美元兑新台币持平，报收在31.75新台币(1美元)，而在前一个交易日，汇价曾达四年高点。
台湾拥有2427.4亿美元外汇储备，排名世界第三。外汇储备可能被用来抑制新台币的进一步上扬。台湾央行有一项“动态稳定”政策，目标是让新台币与日本和韩国等本地区出口竞争者的货币保持一致。但在2003年台湾向外国基金投资者开放市场后，控制新台币的走势变得更加困难了。
此外，台湾政府采用了比韩国更自由的外汇体系，因为它允许外国投资者直接将资金汇入台湾，而不用提前公布这笔钱将投资哪些证券。
为防止投机，台湾央行在发现大额汇款流入却没有立即购买股票时，会就资金的用途单独询问外国投资者。
