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Dollar up, businesses finding them hard to come by
Companies complain that it is very difficult to buy dollars from banks these days, since the dollar price increased.
The exchange rate written in the contracts on selling dollars signed by banks and their clients is VND16,000/US$1. However, in fact, businesses have to pay market price, which is VND1,400/US$1 higher than the quoted price.
A staff of a bank branch in district 3 in HCM City said that the quoted price is VND16,221/US$1, which is the price written in the contracts, while businesses now have to pay VND17,600/US$1.
The international payment officer of a bank in district 1, HCM City said that in order to be eligible to buy dollars, businesses must state clearly the purposes of their dollar purchases. Banks only consider selling dollars to import-export companies which need dollars to pay for imports.
The dollar price hike has made export companies happy. Le Cong Thang, Director of Tin Dat Production and Trade Company Ltd, said that the company has got good profit from export deals thanks to the dollar’s revaluation.
However, Thang said that further dollar price increases will do more harm than good. “Our company is going to import more equipment to expand production. We also have to make payments for the materials we imported. Therefore, we don’t want the dollar price to increase further,” he said.
Chairman of the Member Board of Dat Minh Thinh Garment Production and Trade Company Ltd Nguyen Van Dau said that in the immediate time, garment companies have to consider minimising the use of imported materials for production.
Dau said that previously, 80% of input materials were imported. However, as the dollar has fluctuated, garment companies have been trying to use domestically made products.
Explaining the dollar price increase, Le Dang Doanh, a senior economist, said that the dollar supply and demand has become imbalanced due to the trade deficit. Concerns about high inflation and bad economic performance have prompted people to collect and save gold and dollars.
According to economist Tran To Tu, people fear that the VND will lose its value with the high inflation, and they are returning to traditional investment channels, gold and dollars.
“The situation may last till the end of the year due to people’s psychology,” he said.
VNN
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