Taiwanese life insurers’ overseas assets ended seventh straight monthly gains in August with their valuation dragged by the appreciating local currency against the US dollar, according to figures from Taiwan’s central bank.
The island’s 21 life insurance firms had allocated NT$21.93 trillion (US$680.18 billion) to overseas assets, mainly in US equities and bonds, down 2.3% from NT$22.44 trillion in July.
The lender’s figures show that the growth in local insurers’ overseas asset portfolio value had narrowed since April and began to decline in August.
In August, the greenback dropped by 2.8% against the Taiwanese dollar as the US dollar weakened against a basket of Asian currencies due to market expectations on US rate cuts.
According to figures from the Financial Supervisory Commission, Taiwan’s life insurance industry suffered NT$13.2 billion of combined investment loss in August due to the local stock market slump and a strong local currency.
Taiwan’s stock market suffered one of the worst one-day plunges in early August, triggered by bearish investor sentiment on the US economic outlook.