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Greenback sees new price hike wave
The director of an import company in Hanoi said that she was surprised when she contacted some banks yesterday morning to purchase dollars and was told that the selling price was VND18,900/US$1, an increase of VND1,300/US$1 over last week.
Thu Ha, the director, related that a banker offered to sell dollars to her at a softer price of VND18,700/US$1. In the afternoon on the same day, many banks sold dollars at VND19,200/US$1.
Ha’s imports, which arrived in Hai Phong port one month ago, have not been cleared as Ha still cannot buy dollars to make payment. Ha is considering accepting buying expensive dollars to get the imports cleared.
A company in district 1, HCM City, said that last week, several days after the State Bank of Vietnam adjusted the exchange rate, import companies had to buy dollars at VND18,500/US$1.
The owner of another business related that on June 5 he went to a bank to ask to buy $30,000 for international payment. The bank said that it did not have dollars to sell, but if the client really needed dollars, the bank could help him buy from other sources at VND17,700/US$1. At that time, the interbank exchange rate was VND16,260/US$1 and the rate on the black market was VND17,300/US$1.
On June 13, three days after the State Bank raised the exchange rate to VND16,648/US$1, he was told that the dollar price was VND18,000/US$1. Some banks quoted the price of VND16,680/US$1, but asked for the additional fee of VND1,000 for every US$.
Nguyen Hoa Binh, Chairman of Vietcombank, the biggest foreign currency trade bank in Vietnam, said on June 18 afternoon that he did not think his bank deliberately sold dollars to clients at high prices. However, he said: “Vietcombank is just a part of the market, so it also has to bear the market’s influences. The exchange rate is really not suitable.”
Binh said that if banks make transactions at the posted prices no one will sell dollars to banks. Meanwhile, the State Bank only imposes the cap on the VND/US$ exchange rate and does not put any cap on other foreign currencies.
Vietcombank’s report showed that in the first five months of the year, the bank had the total turnover from foreign currency trade reaching $32bil, up by 116.4% compared to the same period of last year.
Of this amount, Vietcombank purchased $16.2bil, mostly from export companies, up by 116.5%, and sold $15.7bil up by 116.2%.
According to the General Statistics Office, in the first five months of the year, the export turnover of the national economy reached $23.39bil, increasing by 27.2% over the same period of last year, while import turnover was $37.8bil, up by 67%.
Regarding the exchange rate policy, Binh said that the exchange rate should be adjusted in cautious steps.
VNN
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