Taiwan central bank says US debt rising too fast may impact trust in Treasuries
[TAIPEI] Taiwan's central bank governor warned on Saturday (Jun 21) that rapidly rising US debt could be 'unfavourable' to the outlook for US Treasuries and that US President Donald Trump's trade policies have made investors cautious.
Taiwan's US$593 billion in foreign exchange reserves are more than 80 per cent made up of US Treasury bonds, according to the central bank, which said earlier this month that Treasuries were 'sound' and still favoured by investors. It added that there were no worries about the US dollar's position as the leading international reserve currency.
Governor Yang Chin-long, in a speech posted on the central bank's website, said Trump's repeated criticisms of the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy have caused concerns about its independence.
'In addition, Trump 2.0's trade policy has made investors hesitant about holding US Treasury bonds; Trump's budget, the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' may cause US debt to expand too quickly, which is unfavourable to the outlook for US sovereign debt,' he said.
'All of these have had a significant impact on the international monetary system centred on the US dollar and based on US creditworthiness.'
Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill is the centrepiece of his domestic agenda.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
Sign Up
Sign Up
The bill would lead to a larger-than-expected US$2.8 trillion increase in the federal deficit over the decade, despite a boost to US economic output, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected on Tuesday.
Trump, in his first few weeks in office, also announced sweeping tariffs on a broad swathe of countries and trading partners, including Taiwan, only to pause them for 90 days in April to allow for talks to take place.
Yang said Trump had been hoping the tariffs could resolve the US trade deficit.
'However, the tariff policy not only fails to solve the structural problems, it will also impact the US economy, and threaten to further affect the outlook for global trade and the economy.' REUTERS
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Israel says it delayed Iran's presumed nuclear programme by two years
JERUSALEM: Israel claimed on Saturday (Jun 21) it has already set back Iran's presumed nuclear programme by at least two years, a day after United States President Donald Trump warned that Tehran has a "maximum" of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes. Trump has been mulling whether to involve the US in Israel's bombing campaign, indicating in his latest comments that he could take a decision before the two-week deadline he set this week. Israel said on Saturday its air force had launched fresh air strikes against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran, as it kept up a wave of attacks it says are aimed at preventing its rival from developing nuclear weapons - an ambition Tehran has denied. "According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb," Israel's foreign minister Gideon Saar said in an interview published on Saturday. Saar said Israel's week-long onslaught would continue. "We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat," he told German newspaper Bild. Top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday and urged him to resume talks with the US that had been derailed by Israel's attacks. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, "We invited the Iranian minister to consider negotiations with all sides, including the United States, without awaiting the cessation of strikes, which we also hope for". But Araghchi told NBC News after the meeting that "we're not prepared to negotiate with them (the United States) anymore, as long as the aggression continues". Trump was dismissive of European diplomacy efforts, telling reporters, "Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this". Trump also said he's unlikely to ask Israel to stop its attacks to get Iran back to the table. "If somebody's winning, it's a little bit harder to do," he said. Any US involvement would likely feature powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses to destroy an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo. On the streets of Tehran, many shops were closed and normally busting markets largely abandoned on Friday. 450 MISSILES A US-based NGO, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, said on Friday based on its sources and media reports that at least 657 people have been killed in Iran, including 263 civilians. Iran has not updated its tolls since Sunday, when it said that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. Since Israel launched its offensive on Jun 13, targeting nuclear and military sites but also hitting residential areas, Iran has responded with barrages which Israeli authorities say have killed at least 25 people. A hospital in the Israeli port of Haifa reported 19 wounded, including one person in a serious condition, after the latest Iranian salvo. Israel's National Public Diplomacy Directorate said more than 450 missiles have been fired at the country so far, along with about 400 drones. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted military sites and air force bases. "MADNESS" Western powers have repeatedly expressed concerns about the rapid expansion of Iran's nuclear programme, questioning in particular the country's accelerated uranium enrichment. The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 per cent. However, it added that there was no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead. The agency's chief Rafael Grossi told CNN it was "pure speculation" to say how long it would take Iran to develop weapons. Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the conflict was at a "perilous moment" and it was "hugely important that we don't see regional escalation". Araghchi arrived in Istanbul on Saturday, according to the Tasnim news agency, for a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to discuss the Iran-Israel conflict. Switzerland announced it was temporarily closing its embassy in Tehran, adding that it would continue to fulfil its role representing US interests in Iran.
Business Times
3 hours ago
- Business Times
Taiwan central bank says US debt rising too fast may impact trust in Treasuries
[TAIPEI] Taiwan's central bank governor warned on Saturday (Jun 21) that rapidly rising US debt could be 'unfavourable' to the outlook for US Treasuries and that US President Donald Trump's trade policies have made investors cautious. Taiwan's US$593 billion in foreign exchange reserves are more than 80 per cent made up of US Treasury bonds, according to the central bank, which said earlier this month that Treasuries were 'sound' and still favoured by investors. It added that there were no worries about the US dollar's position as the leading international reserve currency. Governor Yang Chin-long, in a speech posted on the central bank's website, said Trump's repeated criticisms of the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy have caused concerns about its independence. 'In addition, Trump 2.0's trade policy has made investors hesitant about holding US Treasury bonds; Trump's budget, the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' may cause US debt to expand too quickly, which is unfavourable to the outlook for US sovereign debt,' he said. 'All of these have had a significant impact on the international monetary system centred on the US dollar and based on US creditworthiness.' Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill is the centrepiece of his domestic agenda. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up The bill would lead to a larger-than-expected US$2.8 trillion increase in the federal deficit over the decade, despite a boost to US economic output, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected on Tuesday. Trump, in his first few weeks in office, also announced sweeping tariffs on a broad swathe of countries and trading partners, including Taiwan, only to pause them for 90 days in April to allow for talks to take place. Yang said Trump had been hoping the tariffs could resolve the US trade deficit. 'However, the tariff policy not only fails to solve the structural problems, it will also impact the US economy, and threaten to further affect the outlook for global trade and the economy.' REUTERS

Straits Times
4 hours ago
- Straits Times
An Iran deal in two weeks? Hard to achieve, even if Trump really wants one
President Donald Trump told reporters that he is interested largely in the coercive part of coercive diplomacy at Morristown Airport in New Jersey on June 21. PHOTO: ERIC LEE/NYTIMES News analysis An Iran deal in two weeks? Hard to achieve, even if Trump really wants one WASHINGTON – Ask diplomats who have negotiated with Iran, and they usually describe it with some variant of: Brace yourself, it takes a long time. It took the better part of two years to put together the Obama-era agreement that all but halted Iran's nuclear program. After President Donald Trump scrapped that deal in his first term, it took 15 months for the Biden administration to negotiate a way to piece it back together – at which point Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vetoed the near-final agreement. So what could Mr Trump, dangling the possibility that last-minute diplomacy could provide an alternative to bombing Iran's main uranium enrichment facility, hope to accomplish in the two-week window he has given himself to make a decision? Not much, the veterans of such negotiations warn. But then again, the environment is very different this time. Ayatollah Khamenei is the final word in all foreign policy issues – but he is also most likely in hiding, US intelligence officials say. Iran's foreign minister and lead negotiator Abbas Araghchi says he is open to placing limitations on Iran's nuclear output similar to what he and his colleagues negotiated with the United States a decade ago. But on June 20 , he told his European counterparts in Geneva that Iran would never negotiate as long as Israel was dropping missiles on its military bases and nuclear facilities, and carrying out targeted killings of Iran's Revolutionary Guard officers and nuclear scientists. Mr Trump, for his part, made clear to reporters on June 20 that he is interested largely in the coercive part of coercive diplomacy. Iran, he insisted, had only minutes left on the clock. 'I'm giving them a period of time, and I would say two weeks would be the maximum,' he said. And he dismissed the idea that the meeting in Europe would do anything but slow things down. 'Iran didn't want to speak to Europe,' he said. 'They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help.' Whether Mr Trump is serious about negotiations or just buying time to better prepare for a military assault and its aftermath remains unclear. But there was no public evidence yet that the contacts between Mr Araghchi and the president's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff could lead to a meeting, much less a deal that would satisfy Mr Trump. Or even that such a deal would be enough to hold back Israel's determination to wipe out Iran's nuclear facilities. Mr Araghchi knows every inch of the Iranian nuclear complex and was a central player in negotiating the 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump exited three years later. But even today , US officials do not know how much sway he holds with Ayatollah Khamenei . Mr Witkoff is the mirror opposite: He knew virtually nothing about the Iranian programme and has spent the past few months cramming on the details of nuclear enrichment and Iranian negotiating history. But he has a tight relationship with Mr Trump that goes back to their New York real estate days and holds considerable sway over what constitutes an acceptable deal. If the two men were able to come to the kind of agreement that has eluded them through two and a half months of negotiations, they would still have to sell it back home. 'These are not normal times,' said Dr Richard Haass, who oversaw Iran policy for President George H.W. Bush and was a senior State Department official for President George W. Bush. 'The pressure on Iran, since they are losing, is more intense than it has ever been. And the pressure on Trump to use military force if it looks like the Iranians are trying to buy time rather than reach an agreement will be huge.' Success may depend on exactly what Mr Trump demands: the 'unconditional surrender' that he keeps talking about or a narrower, face-saving halt in remaining nuclear enrichment, with the understanding that while Iran may retain what it views as its 'right' to produce nuclear fuel, it will never again exercise that right. 'Two weeks may be enough time for an unconditional capitulation. A day suffices for that,' said Mr Robert Malley, who participated in the negotiations that led to the 2015 agreement and then led the failed Biden-era effort to reconstitute some version of that deal. But, Mr Malley added, 'that may be what President Trump wants, but it is almost certainly not what he will get. As the Islamic Republic sees it, it's tantamount to being offered the choice between committing suicide and taking their chances at being killed. History suggests they will take their chances.' Mr Malley noted that there might be room for a diplomatic off-ramp, one in which 'Iran agrees to 'voluntarily' and 'temporarily' stop enriching uranium, which is much easier now that its enrichment capacity is a shadow of its former self.' That, he added, could 'give space for US -Iranian negotiations and halt the mad dash to a US war'. It is the kind of creative approach that, when missiles were not flying, might be wordsmithed over weeks or months in Vienna, then taken back to Tehran and Washington for formal sign-off . Clearly, no one has time for that process now. As he emerged from the talks in Geneva on June 20, Mr Araghchi did not sound in the mood for even starting down that road, any more than Mr Trump sounded very interested in negotiating. The Iranian foreign minister suggested that, in retrospect, perhaps his talks with Mr Witkoff had been an elaborate US -engineered shadow play, a cover for the Israelis as they prepared for war. 'So they had perhaps this plan in their mind, and they just needed negotiations perhaps to cover it up,' Mr Araghchi told NBC's Andrea Mitchell . 'We don't know how we can trust them anymore. What they did was in fact a betrayal to diplomacy.' Iran, he said, would never entirely stop making nuclear fuel. 'Zero enrichment is impossible,' he said. 'This is an achievement of our own scientists. It is a question of national pride.' NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.