VietNamNet
Bridge – The gold market stays gloomy,
while the import-export activities have been quiet, but the dollar prices have
been increasing rapidly in recent days.
While
the interbank dong/dollar exchange rate had been kept stable for the 99th day
until April 28, commercial banks have raised the dollar prices continuously
since April 26, before the new regulation on banks’ daily foreign currency
position takes effect in early May.
Banks
try to buy more, block sale
On April
27, Vietcombank quoted the buy and sale prices at 20,850-20,930 dong per
dollar, respectively. The prices quoted by BIDV were 20,840 – 20,910 dong per
dollar, Eximbank 20,850 – 20,920, ACB 20,840 – 20,900 dong per dollar. The
quoted prices represented the 10-20 dong per dollar increase in comparison with
the previous day.
Especially,
the dollar prices increased continuously last week with the price increasing by
up to 30 dong per dollar some days. To date, the dollar price has increased by
70-80 dong per dollar since the beginning of the month. Meanwhile, the official
dong/dollar exchange rate announced by the State Bank has been stable at 20,828
dong per dollar over the last three months.
The
recent unexpected dollar price increases have been explained by the fact that
banks are gearing up to cope with the new policy to take effect as of early
May.
Commercial
banks have been trying to collect foreign currencies. L, a dollar depositor at
ACB, said that the dollar deposit at the bank is due in some more days. L was
wavering between selling the dollars or not, because the dollar was too low.
However, a bank officer has advised her to sell dollars to the bank, as the
dollar price has increased by a little.
It
could be a surprise to many people that banks still try to collect more
dollars, while they have to bear tighter regulations on providing foreign
currency loans as of May 2.
An
expert said that the 50-70 dong per dollar increase in the last month does not
mean that the demand is higher than the supply. However, the continued dollar
price increases in the last week of April clearly showed that banks now need
big amounts of foreign currency.
The
expert, analyzing the markets which have influences on the dollar market, such
as gold, import-export activities and credit growth, affirmed that the markets
all have been stable, while the liquidity has become weaker, therefore, the
markets could not be the reasons behind the recent dollar price increases.
The only
reason is that banks have been gearing up to balance the foreign currency
positions before the Circular No. 07 takes effect on May 2, under which the
foreign currency position of commercial banks at the end of the day must not be
higher than 20 percent of the owners’ equity.
“Some
commercial banks made a mistake before when lending too much in dollars.
Therefore, they now need big amounts of dollars to be able to satisfy the new
regulation on the foreign currency position,” the expert said.
Meanwhile,
Nguyen Hoang Minh, Deputy Director of the HCM City Branch of the State Bank of
Vietnam does not think this way.
“I
think that the dollar price has increased because banks now try to push up the
lending in dollars before the day the State Bank tightens the conditions for
borrowing in foreign currencies,” he said.
The
dong/dollar exchange rate has been stabilized for a long period. Dragon
Capital, for the first time in its 17-year operation in Vietnam, announced a
couple of weeks ago that the net assets of the funds managed by the company had
increased by 1.4 percent, since the dong has appreciated against the US
dollars.
Just
one year ago, they complained that Vietnam adjusted the exchange rate too many
times, and they did not know what to say to investors about the dong value
stabilization when raising funds, according to Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon.
Source:
Dat Viet, TBKTSG
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