State Bank pledges stable exchange rate, forex market until early 2016

VGP - The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) affirmed that it would not make any more adjustments to the exchange rate and would apply all necessary measures to stabilise the exchange rate and foreign exchange (forex) market by the end of 2015 and in the early months of 2016.

August 25, 2015 4:41 PM GMT+7

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Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam, Nguyen Thi Hong made the statement on August 24 amid the sharp increase of the interbank USD/VND exchange rate in recent days.

The recent fluctuations of the exchange rate were mainly due to market sentiment, speculation and profiteering, Hong said.

She noted that the adjustment of the interbank USD/VND exchange rate and the trading band on August 19 was very strong and the SBV anticipated changes including fluctuations of the Chinese yuan's devaluation, and the possibility of rising interest rates from the US Federal Reserve (Fed).

The SBV Deputy Governor affirmed that the recent adjustments have made the Vietnamese dong competitive and are flexible enough to cope with developments of the market.

On the same day, commercial banks simultaneously raised their exchange rates to the ceiling of VND22,547 per USD as allowed by the SBV.

At 4:30pm, Vietcombank listed its rate at VND22,500 and VND22,547 for buying and selling, up VND40 for buying and VND7 for selling compared to the last week. VietinBank also increased the buying and selling prices by VND50 and VND17 respectively to VND22,500 and VND22,547.- NDO