Today, the Taiwan dollar depreciated past the critical 32.00 threshold against the greenback, extending a cumulative decline of over NT$0.3 amid heavy foreign fund outflows and broader macroeconomic pressures. The drop follows a sharp slide on July 9, when the currency hit its weakest level since April 2025, prompted in part by massive corporate dividend distributions.
On July 9, the US dollar gained NT$0.146 to close at NT$32.178, after hitting an intra-day peak of NT$32.212 on a total turnover of $2.262 billion. The depreciation was accelerated as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. issued its quarterly dividend that day, triggering a distinct surge in foreign capital repatriation. To stabilize the local currency, Taiwan’s central bank stepped in to ask local banks to process large US dollar sell orders during the slide.
With domestic corporations projected to pay out a historic NT$2.5 trillion in cash dividends this year, Khoon Goh of Australia & New Zealand Banking Corp warned that foreign repatriation could drag the currency toward 32.5 per US dollar. The currency's year-to-date decline, which stood at 2.3% as of July 9, has also been fueled by global headwinds, including market expectations of US interest rate hikes and rising energy prices linked to geopolitical tensions.