Taipei, Jan. 6 (CNA) Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves were down at the end of December from a month earlier as its central bank stepped in to prevent the Taiwan dollar from further depreciating against the U.S. dollar, the bank said.

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Taiwan had US$576.677 billion in forex reserves as of the end of 2024, down US$1.297 billion from a month earlier, but the holdings were also up US$6.08 billion, or 1.07 percent, from the end of 2023, according to central bank data released Monday.

An increase in returns from the central bank’s management of its investment portfolio offset the impact of the bank’s sale of the U.S. dollar during its market intervention in December, the central bank said.

The central bank intervened in the local forex market from time to time in 2024 to moderate market volatility as the U.S. dollar rose NT$0.2046 or 6.24 percent against the Taiwan dollar for the year as a whole, marking the third consecutive year of depreciation.

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According to the central bank, it sold US$9.06 billion more U.S. dollars than it bought during its market intervention in the first half of 2024, while the figure for the second half was not immediately available.

Speaking with reporters, Tsai Chiung-min (蔡炯民), head of the central bank’s Foreign Exchange Department, said the U.S. dollar stayed strong against the Taiwan dollar.

That was especially true in the fourth quarter of last year amid fears that the return of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to raise tariffs, to the White House will trigger inflation and prompt the Federal Reserve to slow down the pace of its rate cuts.

But, compared with other non-U.S. currencies such as the South Korean won and the Japanese yen, the Taiwan dollar appeared relatively stable as the local unit got support from a strong export performance, Tsai said.

Meanwhile, central bank data showed that the value of foreign investors’ holdings of Taiwan-listed stocks and bonds and Taiwan dollar-denominated deposit rose to US$836.9 billion at the end of December from US$802.5 billion at the end of November.

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Those holdings represented 145 percent of Taiwan’s total forex reserves at the end of December, up from 139 percent as of the end of November, the data indicated.

Tsai said the increase largely resulted from a rising stock market, which encouraged foreign investors to hold more Taiwan dollar-denominated assets in December.

Taiwan remained the fourth largest holder of foreign reserves in the world, trailing only China (US$3.27 trillion), Japan (US$1.08 trillion) and Switzerland (US$822.0 billion), according to the central bank.