Taipei,Oct.12,2012--Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves increased US$3.728 billion from a month earlier to US$397.954 billion at the end of September,remaining the world's fourth largest holder of forex reserves,according to the central bank.
S.Y.Lin,director general of Foreign Exchange Dept.,says such rise came mainly from revenue generated by forex investments by the central bank and additional book income from the bank's holdings in euro,Japanese yen and British pound,which rose against the greenback by 3.34%,1.16%and 1.88%,respectively during the month.
South Korean forex reserves also rose a monthly US$5.2 billion,with Singapore's rising US$2 billion,and Hong Kong's dropping US$2.7 billion.
Lin says the recent third round of quantitative easing adopted by the U.S.might drive speculative funds to Asia,with Taiwan's forex reserves very likely to exceed US$400 billion this month.
Last month foreign investors overbought shares of NT$58.689 billion(US$1.96 billion)in the local stock market and the net inflow of foreign funds was only US$406 million,according to Financial Supervisory Commission.
In the same month Taiwan's stock,bonds and NT dollar deposits held by foreigners amounted to NT$216.1 billion(US$7.2 billion),accounting for 54%of the forex reserves.
At the end of September China led in forex reserves with US$3.24 trillion,followed by Japan at US$1.1981 trillion and Russia at US$451.6 billion,with Taiwan trailing in sequence with Brazil,South Korea,Hong Kong and India.