Island Currency: Currency Purchases and Taiwan Germany

island currency: Switzerland was added to the list this time for what the department called the country significant foreign currency purchases over the last year, according to The Japan Times. While referring to Taiwan persistent foreign currency purchases to limit appreciation of the island currency, the department cited high levels of bilateral trade surpluses with the United States and current account surpluses as reasons for Japan and three other countries to be included in the list. Despite a sharp appreciation of the yen this year, the dollar-yen foreign exchange market has been functioning smoothly, the department said in a semiannual report to Congress as it kept Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Germany on the so-called monitoring list it created in a previous report released in April. Treasury will closely monitor and assess the economic trends and foreign exchange policies of the economies on the monitoring list, the report said. But the department concluded that no major trading partner of the United States met the standard of manipulating the rate of exchange between its currency and the United States dollar for purposes of preventing effective balance of payments adjustments or gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade. The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama will continue to take effective actions to help ensure a level playing field for our workers and companies, it said. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.