Taiwan Bonds Snap 3-Week Gain on Growth Outlook; Currency Drops
February 10, 2012, 4:35 AM ESTBy Andrea Wong
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan’s government bonds had their first weekly drop in a month on signs the island’s recovery will withstand Europe’s debt crisis. Taiwan’s dollar fell.
Gross domestic product will expand 3.91 percent in 2012, according to the statistics bureau, compared with an official preliminary estimate of a 4 percent increase last year. The currency snapped a six-week rally after European finance ministers held back a rescue package for Greece, renewing concern the indebted nation may have to exit the euro.
“Some people may be thinking the economy’s not doing that bad after all,” said George Pu, a Taipei-based fixed-income trader at Sinopac Securities Corp. “Yields are edging higher.”
The yield on the government’s 1 percent notes due January 2017, the most-traded government securities, rose one basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 0.949 percent this week, prices from Gretai Securities Market show. The rate was little changed today. Benchmark five-year yields could test 1 percent, Pu said.
The Taiwan dollar weakened 0.2 percent today and 0.1 percent this week to NT$29.56 against its U.S. counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc. The currency touched NT$29.370 today, its strongest level since Sept. 13.
The overnight money-market rate, which measures interbank funding availability, dropped one basis point for the week to 0.397 percent, according to a weighted average compiled by the Taiwan Interbank Money Center. It was little changed today.
--Editors: Andrew Janes, Ven Ram
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Wong in Taipei at awong268@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sandy Hendry at shendry@bloomberg.net
