The central bank said the first auction of its new DICOM system yielded an exchange rate of 30,987.5 bolivars per euro, equivalent to around 25,000 per dollar. That is a devaluation of 86.6 percent with respect to the previous DICOM rate and 99.6 percent from the subsidized rate of 10 bolivars per dollar, which was eliminated last week. Venezuela is undergoing a major crisis, with quadruple-digit inflation and shortages of food and medicine. Economists consistently describe the 15-year-old currency control system as the principal obstacle to functioning commerce and industry. The new rate is still dwarfed by the black market rate for greenbacks, currently at 228,000 bolivars per dollar according to website DolarToday, which is used as a reference. The existence of such disparate exchange rates has for years encouraged Venezuelans to buy dollars on the cheap and flip them on the black market for a profit. That has created shortages of hard currency, which in turn fuels shortages of imported products such as food and medicine. The government has repeatedly created foreign exchange mechanisms similar to DICOM, but business leaders say they never provided a steady supply of hard currency. The government would repeatedly end up shuttering the foreign exchange platforms in part because maintaining an exchange rate so divergent from the black market rate proved to be unsustainable. “If the exchange rate is imposed arbitrarily, it will perpetuate the crisis,” wrote Alejandro Grisanti of local consultancy Ecoanalitica on Twitter. Theo Voanews
Local bank officials, manufacturers and traders told Tuoi Tre they are not worried about the US dollar-Vietnam foreign exchange (forex) rate increase, as, according to them, the supply of the greenback is still ample. By the end of Monday’s trading session, the official forex rate quoted at local banks was around VND21,340-21,430 per dollar VNDVND21,405-21,450 per dollar for bid and ask, respectively. Meanwhile, the ask price for the greenback on the free market peaked at VND21,480 per dollar. A representative of Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) told Tuoi Tre that the forex rates have increased due to supply and…... [read more]
The interbank dollar exchange rate was today increased by VND10 a dollar, sending it back to the record high of VND20,733 a dollar set in April 19, the State Bank of Vietnam has announced. The rate has been hiked for 9 times this month, gaining totally VND105. Banks’ selling ceiling price of the greenback today rose to VND20,940 a dollar accordingly. Interbank forex rate has grown by 0.51 percent compared with the rate set on September 7, when the central bank affirmed that it would not rise by 1 percent by this year’s end. Meanwhile on the black market, the…... [read more]
The director of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Nguyen Van Binh, has told Tuoi Tre that the operating mechanism of the foreign exchange rate between the US dollar and the Vietnam dong in 2013 would not change from 2012. The purchasing power of the dong over the dollar was stable during the last year, and the former even gained value against the latter by year-end, Binh said. Before the Lunar New Year festival, or Tet, Governor Binh told Tuoi Tre that there were experts suggesting that the SBV devalue the dong against the greenback, but SBV refused to do…... [read more]
The foreign exchange (forex) rate between the US dollar and the Vietnam dong has fallen back after the information of the intervention in the forex market of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) spread. Many banks have reduced the forex rate, especially the bid price for the greenback, by VND40-80 per dollar to around VND21,300-21,320 for bid and VND21,360 -21,390 for ask. In early October, the forex rate suddenly rose, bringing the price of the US dollar close to VND21,400 per dollar, after staying stable for the first 9 months of this year due to speculation that SBV will adjust…... [read more]
HANOI, HCMC - The Government will make a drastic intervention in the foreign exchange market to keep the exchange rate between Vietnam dong and the U.S. dollar unchanged, an official said on behalf of the Government. Le Duc Thuy, head of the National Financial Supervisory Commission, told reporters that the central bank would keep the forex rate unchanged by selling U.S. dollars to calm down the market that is seeing the dollar turning feverishly hot. Thuy said he had been assigned by the Prime Minister to deliver the message to the media. He also affirmed the central bank would not…... [read more]
