Central bank raises US dollar prices

August 24, 2011


Central bank raises US dollar prices




The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on Wednesday raised the interbank average forex rate by VND10 to VND20,628 a US dollar after keeping it stable for 14 consecutive days since August 10.

This is the second hike this month after the VND10 a dollar rise on August 9 when the central bank officially approved the imports of 5 tons of gold to cool down the domestic market, extending the dong fall of 0.97 percent so far in August.


The bid and ask forex rate at the central bank's transaction office today is VND20,600 and VND20,924 a US dollar, up 10 dong in the selling price and remaining unchanged for the buying price from yesterday.


With the new adjustment, commercial banks today also raised VND10 in both the US dollar buying and selling price with the US dollar selling price hitting the ceiling price.


Accordingly, the ceiling forex rate applied to commercial banks is adjusted by 1 percentage point, or VND20,924.


The bid and ask forex rate at Vietnam Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade (Vietcombank-VCB), the Vietnam Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) is quoted at VND20,830 and VND20,834, VND20,820 and VND20,834 and VND20,810 and VND20,834 respectively.


Black market’s forex rate hit the VND21,000 mark again yesterday evening.


Some private shops in Hanoi today listed the bid and ask forex rate at VND20,990-21,000 and VND21,020-21,020 a dollar respectively.


Nguyen Van Binh, the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, said Tuesday that the SBV has bought $6 billion since April, enabling the central bank to intervene to stabilize the forex market in any circumstances and will keep the dong-dollar exchange rate stable from now to the end of 2011.


Binh admitted that the dong-dollar exchange rate may be under certain pressure of gold price volatility, especially when local gold prices have high premium to the global ones, according to newswire VnExpress.


“Gold import will lead to higher dollar demand and if gold is imported through official channels, Vietnam will lose official dollar holding, if gold is illegally imported, dollar prices in the back market will rise,” the newswire quoted the governor as saying.


Analysts said the higher dollar demand and price hike also comes from due dollar loans and the import peak season at year-end.


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