Taiwan-Russia Forex Gap Narrows to US$17.6 Billion at End of October

Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves increased US$780 million from a month earlier to US$421.476 billion at the end of October, lagging Russia's by only US$17.6 billion, according to the central bank.

In October most forex reserve holders experienced contraction, yet Taiwan still underwent slight increase in spite of net capital outflow of US$1.2 billion during the month. In the month Taiwan's stock, bonds and NT-dollar deposits held by foreigners totaled  US$287.4 billion, or 68% of its forex reserves.

H.H. Yen, deputy director general of Foreign Exchange Dept. of the central bank, attributes such shrinkages in forex reserves globally to mainly depreciation of local currencies against the U.S. dollar. In October the euro depreciated 0.91% against the greenback, the Japanese yen devalued 1.62% and the British pound dropped  1.68% in value, contrasted by  0.43% rise in China's renminbi.

In the same month Russia's forex reserves totaled US$439.1 billion, down US$15.1 billion from a month earlier and in the first 10 months the reduction totaled over US$70 billion. In June the Taiwan-Russia forex gap was more than US$50 billion but by October had  narrowed to US$17.6 billion. So with reported decline of the rouble to continue, Taiwan may outstrip Russia to become world's third largest forex reserve holder at the end of the year.

As of September China remained the world's largest forex reserves holder at US$3.88 trillion, followed by Japan at US$1.26 trillion. (JL)