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Bonds gain on bleak economic outlook; dong advances
Five-year bonds gained as concern the economy will deteriorate prompted banks to favor the relative safety of government debt. The dong strengthened.
Tumbling imports suggest the country is not investing enough to generate the growth it needs, Matt Robinson, a Sydney-based economist at Moody’s Economy.com, said Tuesday. Vietnam’s gross domestic product rose 3.1 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter, the slowest pace on record, according to Bloomberg data going back to 2001.
“Commercial banks have surplus cash and so it’s understandable that they want to park some of the money in government debt rather than expand lending amid the current economic difficulties,” said Tran Kieu Hung, a Hanoi-based trader at the Bank for Investment & Development of Vietnam, the nation’s second-biggest bank.
The yield on the benchmark note slipped 0.07 percent to 9.04 percent, according to a daily fixing price from 10 banks compiled by Bloomberg. The dong gained almost 0.1 percent to trade at 17,762 against the dollar, the highest since April 15, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Imports plunged 41 percent from a year earlier to US$17.8 billion in the first four months of this year, the government reported April 24. The government plans $8 billion of stimulus spending to help spur economic growth amid a global recession, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said last week.
thanhnien, Bloomberg
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