Topic: the State Bank

On the morning of September 30, the State Bank of Vietnam increased the USD selling rate by VND225, from VND23,700 to VND23,925. This is the fourth increase since the beginning of the year, totaling VND905, or 3.9 per cent.

According to the Viet Dragon Securities Company, more than $10 billion in foreign exchange reserves have been sold since the beginning of the year. At the same time, after just four trading sessions, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has net bought nearly VND70 trillion ($3.01 billion) from open market operations (OMO). As a result, the pressure on the USD/VND exchange rate eased significantly.

After more than two years of being “frozen”, the open market operations (OMO) channel was reopened by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on June 21 with an offering of VND10 trillion ($430 million). This reveals that the central bank is ready to withdraw money from the market to support inflation control.

According to State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Governor Nguyen Thi Hong, as of the end of April, bad debts in the real estate sector totaled VND37 trillion ($1.59 billion), or 1.62 per cent of all outstanding loans in the economy. The central bank is strengthening the inspection of credit applications in the real estate sector to control bad debts and term liquidity risks.