The State Bank of Vietnam, the country’s central bank, Monday set the exchange rate for the U.S. dollar at VND20,828, unchanged for 7 months, and some banks rates were up by VND10.

Banks are allowed to trade dollar at +/-1% from central bank quote and the ceiling price for dollar is currently at VND21,036.

The rate offered by major commercial banks and the gold shop rate are at VND20,830-VND20,850  for bid and VND20,885- VND20,890 for ask, slightly higher than last week close.

                         

Dollar Price Quote for July 30th, 2012.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier, governor Nguyen Van Binh said the exchange rate will be stable till the end of this year.

He also said last week that Vietnam’s deposit interest rates can be adjusted down to 8% late this year and cut soft dong loans to less than 10% next year if inflation is curbed at 7% this year.

Dong denominated deposit rates are currently capped at 9% for short term loans and those of dollar deposited by individuals are capped at 2% while Vietnam inflation eased to 5.35% in July.

Dollar demand and the exchange rate are expected remain stable in the near term because of the weak demand for imports. Vietnam's imports of cotton were down 25.8% on year, and automobiles were down 34.0%, the government's statistics issued last week showed.

Vietnam is estimated to have incurred a trade gap of $60 million in the first seven months of this year, plunging from $5.3 billion in the same period last year, accounting for 0.09%  export values in the period, said the General Statistics Office.

Vietnam’s gold is trading at VND42.1 million a tael Monday, hardly changed from last week close and premium fell to VND1.3 million/tael from previous around VND2 million.

Source StoxPlus