U.S. dollar appreciates 8.5% against Vietnamese dong so far this year

The U.S. dollar has appreciated 8.5% against the Vietnamese dong so far this year - from buying-selling rates of VND22,610-VND22,920 on January 1 to VND24,605-VND24,875 on November 7.

The above rates were recorded at Vietcombank, a "Big 4" bank in the country, with the state as majority shareholder.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), the country’s central bank, listed the U.S. dollar at VND23,690 Monday, down VND3 over last weekend.

The U.S. dollar at commercial banks could be traded at up to 5% higher or lower than the central exchange rate announced by the SBV on a daily basis.

The exchange rate has been moving sideways or slightly downward for the last two weeks. The SBV net pumped VND7,826 billion ($314.7 million) of t-bills via open market operations (OMOs) last Friday.

At other banks, the greenback approached the cap set by the central bank. BIDV, another “Big 4” bank, set its buying-selling rates for the U.S. dollar at VND24,594 and VND24,874 on Monday. The corresponding rates at VietinBank, also a “Big 4” bank, were VND24,612 and VND24,875.

On the free market, the U.S. dollar was being bought at VND25,300 and sold for VND25,350.

The U.S. dollar has been under influence of the U.S. Federal Reserve's (Fed) interest rate hike, with the latest one of 0.75 percentage points on November 2, the fourth in a row. The Fed’s hawkish decision pushed the currency up before it was pushed down by negative economic indicators of the U.S. market.

SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong told local media Sunday that the Government and the Prime Minister have been directing agencies to speed up disbursement of public investment and apply suitable fiscal policies to ease pressures on the banking system.

The Government has also deployed measures to boost exports and attract more foreign investments to expand supply of foreign currencies, easing pressures on the exchange rates, she added.