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When the dollar price goes down
The unexpected sharp declines of the dollar price have been puzzling merchants.
A lot of customers who came to buy garment accessories for making export products asked the sellers why the prices of all products remain unchanged, though the dollar price has dropped to VND16,900/US$1.
Nguyen Thi Huong, the owner of the T-shirt production workshop in Tan Binh district, said that when the dollar price increased, the sale prices of accessories went up sharply as sellers said they imported the products and made payments in dollar. However, though the dollar price has been decreasing for a couple of weeks, the sale prices remain unchanged.
In fact, garment accessories importers have become embarrassed with the unexpected dollar price decreases.
Nguyen Hung, the owner of a private enterprise specialising in importing garment accessories, said that he still has 10,000 m of cotton cloth lining unsold, which he imported when the dollar price was at VND19,200/US$1. At that time, he decided to import 40,000 m of cloth lining because he was told that the dollar price might skyrocket to VND21-22,000/US$1. However, the deal he made has turned out unwise, as the dollar unexpectedly fell down to VND17,000/US$1.
A lot of trading companies, which tried to import commodities in large quantities for fear of dollar price increases, now are like cats on hot bricks. Nguyen Hoang Thu Lan, Director of Kim Khanh Company, said that a shampoo bottle has the price of $5 on average. The dollar price fluctuations may make the import price decrease by VND10,000/unit, which can bring big losses to importers.
As the dollar has been decreasing in price, retailers have to reduce commodity and service prices.
Home appliance price reductions have been quoted by many suppliers. A salesman of Hoan Long Home Appliance Centre in district 1, HCM City, said that the prices of LCD screens have decreased by VND50,000 to several million VND.
Le Trung Thanh, who lives in district 9, HCM City, regretted purchasing a laptop when the dollar price was at its highest peak one month ago. He said he would not have purchased the laptop if he had known the dollar price would drop so dramatically. The Dell Vostro 1400 he purchased at VND19mil one month ago, now is priced at around VND17mil.
Meanwhile, mobile phone suppliers have not made any announcements about price decreases as they still have products imported at high prices.
Dinh Anh Huan, Business Director of The Gioi Di Dong, said that the distribution of mobile phones is a bit different from the distribution of computers. The mobile phone prices went up only a long time after the dollar price went up; therefore, they will go down a long time after the dollar price goes down.
Hoang Ngoc Vy, Director of A Telecommunication, said that only Sony Ericsson has reduced sale prices by VND200-300,000/unit to stimulate demand. Meanwhile, other distributors are awaiting Nokia’s move. If Nokia slashes prices, others will follow.
VNN
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