Interbank interest rates hit decade high

Vietnam's interbank interest rates have reached a decade-high of 9.48% and 9.72% per year for deposit terms of one week and nine months, and 8.44% for overnight loans, according to the State Bank of Vietnam.

The interbank rate is the interest charged on short-term loans made between financial institutions.

The volume of interbank overnight loans jumped to VND234,196 billion ($9.81 billion) on Tuesday, up from VND156,844 billion one day earlier, which indicated that banks’ demand for short-term loans to support their liquidity remained high.

To adapt to the situation, the central bank pumped VND19,000 billion ($795.5 million) into the market via open market operations (OMO) on Wednesday, raising its total to VND97,400 billion ($4.08 billion) since the regulatory interest rates were raised on September 23.

Top broker SSI Securities said it did not rule out the possibility that the central bank would make another regulatory interest rate hike over the rest of the year to ease pressure on the USD/VND exchange rate as the U.S. Federal Reserve is predicted to make further interest rate hikes in November and December.

The U.S. dollar appreciated 4.7% against the end of 2021 at Vietcombank, a "Big 4" bank, while the interbank exchange rate rose 4.5%, according to SSI.

"Pressure on the exchange rate will remain high over the rest of the year, while it is unlikely that the central bank will continue to sell the greenback to stabilize the forex market as the country’s forex reserve has declined to below the threshold recommended by the IMF," SSI wrote.