Archive for the ‘Asian Currency Markets’ Category

Last Updated: Monday, April 29, 2013 05:00:00

The International Monetary Fund is not very hopeful that Vietnam can make further interest rate cuts this year.

“While headline inflation has come down, core inflation (excluding raw food and energy) remains high, limiting the room for rate cuts,” it said in a release at the conclusion of a mission to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from April 8 to 25 for the 2013 Article IV Consultation discussion with Vietnamese authorities. (more…)

At the Spring Economic Forum 2013, organized in the central province of Khanh Hoa from April 5-6, several delegates were of the view that the economic restructuring program started in Vietnam some years ago has been moving at far too slow a pace.

Incomplete Van Phong International Port in the central province of Khanh Hoa is an example of wasted capital (Photo: SGGP) (more…)

Last Updated: Sunday, April 07, 2013 05:00:00

Vietnam’s government will need to accelerate economic structural reforms to boost growth that was at a 13-year low last year, National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said.

“The economy will continue to face difficulties this year” amid an international slowdown and domestic challenges, Ngan said yesterday at a conference held by the National Assembly’s economic committee in the southern city of Nha Trang.
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VietNamNet Bridge – Under the draft of the new Ordinance on Foreign Exchange, individual residents can borrow money from foreign sources, pay debts and must be responsible for the borrowing in accordance with the regulations to be drawn up by the government.

If the draft ordinance is approved, Vietnamese individuals would be able to take initiative in borrowing foreign currencies from foreign sources for their personal spending or investments and paying debts. (more…)

HA NOI (VNS) — At least 90 per cent of local banks believe that inflation will stay in the single-digits this year, according to a survey conducted by the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV).

Nearly 70 per cent of banks predicted that the mobilised and lending interest rates for the Vietnamese dong would go down by about 2 per cent, the SBV’s Monetary Statistics and Forecasting Department said. (more…)

Last Updated: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 02:00:00

After consumer prices rose 1.25 percent last month, analysts warned that the government is unlikely to keep inflation at below 6 percent this year.

Voice of Vietnam radio quoted economists as saying that a double-digit rise in prices is possible this year, posing more challenges to the government’s attempts to stabilize the economy. (more…)

Sat, February 2, 2013,9:28 AM (GMT+0700)

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) released its Vietnam Manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) in January, 2013, which showed that Vietnam’s economy is recovering despite many difficulties in the coming time.

The index rose to 50.1 in January, up from 49.3 in December, 2012, meaning manufacturing production increased for the third successive month. Companies benefited from a slight increase in new orders from the domestic market. (more…)

State Bank governor Nguyen Van Binh said the government and the entire financial and banking system have taken drastic measures to reduce bad debts while assisting businesses in overcoming difficulties.

Talking with the Vietnam News Agency on the sidelines of the government’s meeting on socio-economic tasks in 2013, the governor said the State Bank also applied its own measures to deal with bad debts. (more…)

Vietnam’s economic growth rate in 2012 is forecast at 5.2 percent. It is the second adjustment from the previous projections of 5.5 percent and 6.5 percent, and is due to a slowing down of the country’s economic performance in the first 10 months of 2012.

Nguyen Thi Tue Anh, head of the Competition Capacity and Business Environment Department of the Central Institute of Economy Management, made the judgment at a forum held in Hanoi last week. (more…)

30/10/2012 08:10:00 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – It is estimated that 60 tons of gold has been sold, which is considered the result of a new policy on taking full advantage of the gold resource that the central bank attempts to pursue.

For a long time, people and analysts have been guessing wildly about the policies the State Bank of Vietnam would set up in order to mobilize the huge capital of 400 tons of gold from the public, after banks stop accepting gold deposits, slated for November 25. (more…)

Last Updated: Thursday, November 01, 2012 03:10:00

Frugality may allow Vietnam to raise the minimum wage for state employees by VND100,000 (US$4.8) per month beginning next July, the Finance Ministry said in a Wednesday report.

The report released at a session of the National Assembly said the ministry has gone over the state budget again, and having considered opinions from various legislators, decided that the budget can afford a small increase to the minimum wage. (more…)

A resolution on the country’s socio-economic development plan for 2013 that will see growth of 5.5 percent GDP and a 10 percent increase in export turnover was adopted by The National Assembly (NA) on November 8.

Additional targets include reducing trade deficit and maintaining CPI growth of 8 percent. State budget overspending will account for 4.8 percent of GDP, and total social development investment, 30 percent of GDP. (more…)

October CPI continues to climb
October’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) saw a slight increase of 0.85 percent compared with the previous month and a year-on-year increase of 7 percent.

This drove the CPI in the past ten months up to 9.66 percent in comparison with the same period last year, said the General Statistics Office (GSO) on October 24. (more…)

Though the central bank is yet to find a way to mobilize the massive volume of gold held by private individuals in the country to serve economic needs, it has banned banks from accepting gold deposits with effect from late November.

Nguyen The Hung, general director of the Vietnam Gold Investment and Trading Corporation, said that according to Swiss banks, the main source of gold imports for Vietnam, the country bought some 500 tons of gold between 1990 and 2011. (more…)

HA NOI – (VNS) Fake VND200,000 banknotes have been circulating in the market, the State Bank of Viet Nam said in a statement on Tuesday.

The fake banknotes, though meticulously printed, are less durable and elastic than the real polymer notes, so users can still distinguish them by the naked eye and by slightly tearing the notes’ edges.

In addition, the fake notes are also easily distinguished because they are not printed with optically variable ink (OVI). The ink, an anti-counterfeiting measure often used on banknotes, displays two distinct colours. (more…)

The Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group each year bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, private sector executives, and academics to discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness. Also featured are seminars, regional briefings, press conferences, and many other events focused on the global economy, international development, and the world’s financial system. This year’s Annual Meetings events will take place in Tokyo, October 9-14, 2012.

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(VOV) – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved sending a Vietnamese delegation led by bank governor Nguyen Van Binh to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) Group annual meetings in Tokyo, Japan, from October 8-14. (more…)

Last Updated: Saturday, September 01, 2012 02:05:00

Vietnam’s bad debts rose to 8.6 percent of total loans at the end of March.  It will take a long time to reduce non-performing loans in Vietnam because the problem has taken root over several years, said the International Monetary Fund, once again urging banking reform. (more…)

Vietnamese Dong

Use of small change has fallen as prices increase

Vietnamese notes and coins below VND5,000 (US$0.24) in value could die out in the market since price hikes make it hard for people to keep and use them in trading, an economist says.
Goods now fetch high prices, so trading with small change has fallen, Vu Dinh Anh told VnExpress Tuesday.

The report quoted a woman called Ha as saying: “I find small change worth nothing in our daily life, so I don’t want to receive it.”

Chuong, a resident of the capital city, said, “I ask vendors to keep the change of VND500-1000 because I cannot buy anything with it.” (more…)

(VOV) – The falling inflation index in the first half of this year is attributed to unanticipated factors and the lack of middle and long-term strategies for stable economic growth.

Deflation could be negative

The Head of the Pricing Department under the General Statistics Office (GSO), Nguyen Duc Thang, says that over the past six months, the low purchasing power and large inventories, coupled with adjusted petrol prices and pay rises have had little impact on the consumer price index (CPI). (more…)

Updated : 12:25 PM, 06/08/2012

(VOV) – Despite slightly slow growth in the past six months, the national economy has yet to slip into recession, according to Vu Duc Dam, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office.

An economy plunges into recession only when its growth is negative in two consecutive quarters, but that is not the case in Vietnam, Dam told the media in Hanoi on August 5. (more…)

Updated : 9:24 AM, 03/08/2012

Vietnam has successfully ensured an economic balance, bringing down inflation and initiating much needed reforms, according to a report by the Hong Kong-Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) on August 2.

Low inflation but slow growth (more…)

Hanoi, Aug 1 (Prensa Latina) Although it is not growing at the rate desired, Vietnam’s economy is showing positive signs at the end of the first half of the year, according to Prime Minister (PM) Nguyen Tan Dung.

His assessment comes as a result of slowed inflation, maintained stability in the macro-economy and the promotion of production in agriculture and industry. (more…)

 

Updated : Wed, July 18, 2012,7:30 PM (GMT+0700)

Vietnam’s economic policy appears to be bringing about a recovery in growth, said The Korea Herald, one of the largest English-language newspapers of the Republic of Korea, in its July 17 edition.

The article says with monetary and fiscal tools, the Vietnamese economy performed well in the first half of 2012 while Asian economic growth was slow and European and US economies worsened by the day. (more…)

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam dong has big advantages over other investment channels at this moment. Keeping dong is the top choice for Vietnamese people because this allows to preserve their assets.

Investors believe that in the context of the bad performance of the world and national economies, the liquidity, not the expected profit, should be considered as the most important thing for them to consider when making investment decisions.

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VietNamNet Bridge – Some bankers have urged the State Bank of Vietnam to regulate the dong/dollar exchange rate in a flexible way to ensure the harmonization of different economic goals, instead of trying to stabilize the exchange rate somehow.

The next dollar undercurrent wave

The dong/dollar exchange rate has been fluctuating regularly since early June. When the dollar price increased slightly in early June, this did not catch the attention of the public, because the central bank committed at the beginning of the year that the dong will not devaluate by more than 3 percent by the end of the year. (more…)

VietFinanceNews.com – Vietnam ’s economy is gradually entering a more stable macroeconomic environment after a prolonged period of heightened turbulence, said a World Bank report. (more…)

VietFinanceNews.com – Investment-banking fees in Vietnam may jump at least 25 percent this year as the country’s government steps up a push to sell assets and foreign companies accelerate acquisitions, according to Credit Suisse Group AG. (CSGN).

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VietFinanceNews.com – The Vietnamese dong currency is rising, so exchange rate adjustments may be in store, said economic experts of the National Institute for Finance at a conference in Hanoi last week.

According to analyses by experts, the dong has strengthened by 23.8% against the U.S. dollar and by 5.7% against the basket of currencies of the country’s major trading partners. (more…)

MAY 13, 2012

VietFinanceNews.com – The Vietnamese currency, the Vietnam dong, is increasing in value, said a research team of the Institute for Financial Strategies and Policies under the Ministry of Finance at a recent conference.

By the end of 2011, the dong appreciated 23.8 percent and 5.7 percent against the US dollar and a “basket” of foreign currencies of other trading partners, said the team at “Coordination of fiscal and monetary policies in macroeconomic regulation” conference held by the ministry in Hanoi. (more…)