Taipei, April 9, 2009 (CENS)--Taiwan`s outstanding foreign exchange reserves broke US$300 billion to US$300.122 billion at the end of March, the highest of its kind and up US$5.935 billion from a month earlier, according to the central bank here.

The NT dollar has risen against the greenback since the beginning of March, hence accelerating the inflow of foreign funds into Taiwan and largely pushing up the forex reserves here. The massive repatriation of foreign funds has helped activate Taiwan`s stock market as well.

Insiders indicated that Taiwanese investors have been remitting overseas investments back to Taiwan since the fourth quarter of last year to hedge against the financial fallout. Besides, the growing friendly relationship between the Taiwan and China has encouraged the repatriation of money for investing at home.

In the fourth quarter of 2008 Taiwan`s forex reserves grew by US$10.5 billion and in the first quarter rose by US$8.4 billion, with much faster rise in forex reserves relative to other leading forex holders over the last two quarters.

Lin Sun-yuan, director general at Foreign Exchange Dept. of the central bank, pointed out that in addition to the inflow of foreign funds and the revenue from successful investments with forex reserves, the book value from holding euro, British pound, and Swiss franc also helped boost the reserves since they have risen against the greenback in March, for growths 4.14%, 0.23%, and 1.66%, respectively.


(by Judy Li)