The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) will conduct an urgent inspection on the operations of foreign exchange desks, especially in Hanoi and HCM City, in order to stabilize the VND/USD rate, the SBV said on its website on June 6.
Recent strong VND/USD fluctuations on the free market are mostly caused by psychological factors and speculations, the SBV said, adding that desks found to violate regulations on foreign exchange activities will be fined strictly.
Under the Decision No. 1216/2003/QD-NHNN, foreign exchange desks may only purchase foreign currency cash from individuals and must sell the whole amount of exchanged foreign currency cash to their principal credit institutions, not to other individuals.
The SBV said it is still adopting flexible forex policy to peg the dong to the U.S. dollar at the plus and minus 2 per cent band as approved by the Prime Minister this year.
The country's central bank can ensure sufficient greenback demand of the economy as Vietnam’s forex reserves are equivalent to five months of imports, the SBV affirmed.
Over the past few days, U.S. dollar continued escalating against the dong on the domestic black market, setting new records.
On June 5, the U.S. dollar appreciated strongly to VND18,000/US$1, even rocketed to VND18,500/US$1 at the grey market in Hanoi, compared to VND16,117/US$1 quoted by the SBV.
The forex market is heated as a great deal of baseless information and rumors and negative reports on Vietnam’s economic prospects with hefty trade deficit and the dong to keep depreciating in near term, prompting local residents and businesses to rush up to hoard and speculate.
The central bank called on people and businesses to keep vigilance over. (www.sbv.gov.vn)
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