TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan central bank governor Yang Chin-long said on Thursday there would be no foreign exchange controls during his tenure at the central bank, adding management measures were sufficient to maintain market stability if there were large capital outflows.
Yang’s five-year term in office is due to expire early next year, but he can be reappointed for a second term though there has been no confirmation either way.
The Taiwan dollar has, like other major Asian currencies, depreciated sharply in recent weeks due to aggressive interest rate hikes in the United States and U.S. dollar strength as well as worries over slowing global economic growth.
It has lost 13% so far this year against the greenback.
Yang, taking lawmaker questions in parliament, said recent outflows of foreign capital were mainly due to U.S. interest rate hikes and that he believed the United States would continue to raise interest rates until the end of this year.
The central bank said on Wednesday it will not adopt foreign exchange control measures, issuing a statement after it said Yang’s comments in parliament earlier in the week had been misreported.
(Reporting by Liang-sa Loh; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
