TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Central Bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) wants the proportion of green bonds in Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves to increase by 5% per year, reports said Thursday (Nov. 9).
Green bonds or climate bonds were designated to fund environmentally friendly projects. The nation’s top banker told the Legislative Yuan the bank had set targets for sustainable development and management.
Yang emphasized he meant that the amount of green bonds would rise by 5% each year, and not that it would just reach 5% of the foreign exchange reserves, per CNA. He told lawmakers he could not specify which proportion they had reached because the bank had only just started buying the green bonds.
The growth rate amounted to 10% in 2021, 14% in 2022, and 23% so far this year, the top banker said. Legislators demanded the Central Bank present a report about the issue within a month.
Yang also addressed general economic issues, saying that future interest rate hikes were possible as inflation peaked in the wake of several typhoons that have forced up the price of vegetables and fruit. The consumer price index (CPI) rose to 3.05% in October, but he predicted it would stay below 2.5% for the year.
As to gross domestic product (GDP), he estimated Taiwan would achieve a growth rate of between 1% and 1.5% in 2023, per the Liberty Times. The Central Bank’s most recent forecast put GDP at 1.46%.
