The Taiwan Stock Exchange posted a six-year high over the last month. The capitalization-weighted stock index grew from a Nov. 1 figure of 7,013.99 to close at 7,647.01 on Dec. 4, the highest figure since finishing at 7,785.62 Sept. 5, 2000. According to the latest weekly statistics released by the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp. Nov. 24, the overall TAIEX market value amounted to around US$565 billion, representing an increase of about US$119 billion over the year. In related news, domestic currency trading between the New Taiwan dollar and U.S. dollar also reached a four-month high point, boosted by overseas investors' purchases on the local stock market. The exchange rate between the two currencies posted 32.500:1 Nov. 29, a trend which continued, reaching 32.398:1 Dec. 4. Perng Fai-nan, governor of the Taipei-based Central Bank of China, told the Chinese-language Commercial Times that currency appreciation was due partly to remittances from overseas and partly to depreciation of the U.S. dollar.
By the end of October, overseas nursing caregivers in Taiwan totaled 150,326--a year-on-year increase of 12,839 or 9.3 percent--which made them the second-largest group of overseas workers by trade, according to statistics released by the Council for Economic Planning and Development Dec. 1. According to the CEPD, this increase could be due to the rapid graying of Taiwanese society, which has also led to a growth in domestic caregivers. The largest number of overseas laborers, totaling 169,065, work in the manufacturing industry, which also saw increases following the Council of Labor Affairs' opening of 19 new categories of laborious and dangerous occupations to overseas applicants since January 2006. By comparison, the number of overseas workers in the construction sector declined by 11.1 percent over the last 12 months, as a result of government restrictions on the use of foreign laborers in effect since 2001, according to the CLA's Shiue Jang-jong.