Vietnam central bank withdraws cash as dong falls to 3-month low

Vietnam’s central bank has resumed issuance of Treasury bills in an attempt to regulate liquidity as the Vietnamese dong has weakened to a two-month-and-a-half low.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) raked in VND4.4 trillion ($174.85 million) on Friday from selling 14-day T-bills at a winning rate of 3.74% per annum and another VND7.9 trillion worth of 28-days notes at 4%.

The SBV had paused issuing T-bills on August 26 to support liquidity of the banking system as the U.S. dollar fell against the Vietnamese dong.

The resumption of T-bill issuance is aimed at withdrawing cash in circulation, thus raising the interest rates on VND-denominates loans on the interbank market. This, in turn, will narrow the USD-VND interest rate gap and support the dong.

The central bank’s latest move came in amid a rebound of the greenback in recent weeks and a drop of the VND-denominated rates on the interbank market.

On the interbank market, the USD/VND rate has increased VND650 per dollar or 2.6% since late September, hitting VND25,200 a dollar late Thursday.

At commercial banks, USD prices have risen to new highs since early August. State-controlled Vietcombank, the largest forex trader in the country, offered the dollar on Friday at VND24,950-25,340 for bids and asks. Compared to early October, the price at the lender has increased VND660 or 2.6%, just VND100 below a historic high seen in June.

Since the start of this year, the USD price at Vietcombank has risen circa 4%.

On the free market, traders were offering the greenback on Saturday morning at VND25,260-25,360 for buying and selling. Since the end of September, the USD price on this channel has risen by VND230 a dollar, or 1%.

Between March and mid-September, when the greenback strengthened and there was a large gap between USD-VND interest rates, the SBV continuously issued T-bills to ease the upward pressure on the USD/VND rate.

According to economists, both domestic and external factors have driven up USD prices in Vietnam.

The DXY Index, which measures the dollar’s strength, now trades at 103.46, after bottoming at 100.38 on September 27. Market participants now expect the Fed to cut rates by 25 basis points at the policy meeting next month instead of 50 basis points some weeks ago.

At home, demand for the greenback has risen as companies in Vietnam buy hard currency to cover import bills.

The USD/VND rate is forecast to rise further in the second half of October and may return to the all-time high reached in the second quarter of this year, analysts with Ho Chi Minh City-based ACB said Friday.