Taiwan's Broad Money Supply Indicators on Uptrend in January

Taipei, March 4, 2011 (CENS)--Taiwan's two broad money supply indicators—M1B and M2—both rose annually 9.35% and 5.5% respectively in January, with the former being the first rise in 12 months, according to the central bank.

Y.T. Chen, deputy director general at the central bank's Economic Research Department, indicated that the M1B supply trend usually influences the capital in the stock market, with an uptrend indicative of a bullish market and a downtrend a bearish one.

In January the outstanding value in stock trading accounts reached NT$1.35 trillion (US$43.55 billion), the highest ever recorded. In the same month, the remittance of foreign equities into Taiwan came to US$3.332 billion and the outstanding NT-dollar deposits held by foreigners increased by NT$41.4 billion (US$1.33 billion) to NT$264.3 billion (US$8.53 billion), a new high since September 2010.

Chen said that the outstanding passbook deposits decreased by NT$35.5 billion (US$1.145 billion) to NT$10.426 trillion (US$336.323 billion) at the end of January, due mainly to strong demand for cash during the Chinese New Year. However, the time deposits increased by NT$189.6 billion (US$6.12 billion) to NT$19.7686 trillion (US$637.697 billion) in the same period.

In January the foreign-currency deposits came to NT$2.4789 trillion (US$79.965 billion), for a monthly drop of NT$96.3 billion (US$3.11 billion).