US dollar crosses 25,000 dong for the first time

The U.S. dollar has not paused gaining against the Vietnamese dong, with Thursday’s open-market rate higher than VND25,000 for the first time ever.

The free market quoted the greenback at VND24,900 - 25,100 (buying, selling) in the morning, up 300-380 dong from Wednesday.

Major lender Vietcombank quoted the dollar at VND24,340-24,650 at mid-day, an increase of 20 dong over Wednesday.

Commercial banks in Vietnam have increased their VND/USD rates by 7.5% so far this year.

The State Bank of Vietnam on October 17 widened the dollar trading band to 5% from 3%, and set its reference rate 0.19% higher on Thursday at VND23,682.

The central bank has also repeatedly sold the U.S. dollar to seek to keep the market stable.

In the world market, the Japanese yen weakened past 150 against the U.S. dollar, a key psychological level, reaching levels not seen since August 1990, CNBC said Thursday.

The same day, Reuters quoted Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki as saying his government will take “appropriate steps against excess volatility.”

“Recent rapid and one-sided yen declines are undesirable. We absolutely cannot tolerate excessively volatile moves driven by speculative trading,” Suzuki said.

Reuters reported on the same day that Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said his government will take “appropriate steps against excess volatility.” He was quoted as saying: “Recent rapid and one-sided yen declines are undesirable. We absolutely cannot tolerate excessively volatile moves driven by speculative trading.”