Central Bank of China

PRESS RELEASE Release Date: Dec. 31, 2003




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Trading Activity in the Taipei Foreign Exchange Market in Nov. 2003

The trading activity in the Taipei foreign exchange market covers all foreign exchange transactions made by authorized foreign exchange banks and offshore banking units. After eliminating double counting arising from interbank transactions, total net trading volume in the market amounted to US$146.3 billion in Nov. 2003. The average daily turnover was US$7.3 billion (Table 1).

Transactions between banks and customers accounted for 34.1 percent of total net turnover, with interbank transactions making up the remaining 65.9 percent (Graph 1).

NT dollar/foreign currency trading accounted for 49.9 percent of total trading volume, of which the share of NT dollars against US dollars was 47.1 percent (Graph 2).

Spot transactions accounted for the lion's share with 54.6 percent of total turnover, followed by foreign exchange swaps with 24.0 percent, outright forwards with 9.9 percent (Graph 3).

Direct trades accounted for 76.3 percent of all interbank foreign exchange transactions, and the remaining 23.7 percent was through money brokers (Graph 4).

In addition to the above-mentioned foreign exchange transactions, other derivatives were also offered by authorized foreign exchange banks. The turnovers of interest rate swaps, forward rate agreements were US$4,112.7 million and US$1,612 million, respectively (Table 2).