VietNamNet Bridge – The US dollar price in Vietnam has increased slightly, but this is not alarming as demand has always increased in the third quarter of the year.  

In addition, demonstrations in Hong Kong have not influenced dong prices.

Bankers have confirmed that the greenback price increased slightly after many months of hovering around VND21,220-21,230 per dollar.

Techcombank on September 29 quoted the dollar price at VND21,255 per dollar, while Vietcombank quoted VND21,245, the same price as the last week’s closing price.

The dollar price had been stable at Vietcombank over the last few months at VND21,220-21,230 per dollar until September 22, when the bank raised the quoted price to VND21,250 per dollar.

The price increase was described by analysts as “modest”, and has not caused any big changes to the market. The dong/dollar exchange rate has remained stable compared with the rate just before and after June 19, when the State Bank devalued the dong by one percent.                

Several days before June 19, the dollar was sold at the ceiling level of VND21,246 per dollar and then at VND21,340-21,380 per dollar right after the central bank’s exchange rate adjustment.

An analyst said on Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon that the dollar price had moved up because the demand for dollars had increased slightly.

The month of September and the third quarter are the time when Vietnamese enterprises need to buy dollars to make payments for imports, while foreign-invested enterprises want to buy dollars to transfer profits abroad to holding companies.

In addition, the dong is now cheap because of low deposit interest rates. Bankers tend to use dong to buy US dollars, which could be why there has been pressure on the dong/dollar exchange rate, according to analysts.

The analyst believes that the US dollar would decrease slightly to the VND21,200 per dollar level.

He said there was no reason for the dollar price to appreciate. The dollar supply in the Vietnamese market remains abundant thanks to the trade surplus, the foreign direct investment (FDI) disbursement, foreign portfolio investment, official development assistance (ODA) and kieu hoi (overseas remittances).

The US dollar index has been escalating over the last 11 weeks in the Asian market, reaching 85.737 on September 29.

The US Department of Commerce last Friday raised the projected US economic growth rate to 4.6 percent, a 2.5-year high. Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve is reportedly going to raise the dollar interest rate.

However, economists still believe that the dollar price increase in the world market would not affect the dong in Vietnam, because the dong can be used in transactions in Vietnam.

The recent ongoing demonstrations in Hong Kong have not had any influences on the Vietnamese finance market.

Thanh Nien newspaper quoted several bankers who said that payment transactions with foreign partners had been going smoothly as usual, while Vietnamese banks had not received any warnings from foreign banks.

Vietcombank quoted the Hong Kong dollar price at VND2,751.98 per dollar on Monday, a slight decrease of VND5 per dollar from the last week.