Bank statistics indicate that foreign exchange volume increased dramatically from February's US $ 750 million to 3.8 billion in March. The result was a vicious cycle as speculators and others, trying to stay ahead of their falling U.S. dollars, poured them into the ROC, bloating foreign reserves from US $ 22.5 billion at the beginning of last year to US $ 62.5 billion by the end of this August.
「一百萬美元進來，換成新台幣拿去炒股票，炒房地產，賺了錢再換成美金，又賺取匯率差額，一出一進，半年後就變成二百萬帶走」，經建會副主委葉萬安分析。根據統計，央行遠期外匯交易量在今年二月不過七億五千萬美元、三月一躍為卅八億、四月達五十九億。