Reference exchange rate down 8 VND on May 16

Hanoi (VNA) - The daily reference exchange rate is adjusted down 8 VND on May 16 to 23,056 VND per USD.

With the current trading band of +/- 3 percent, the ceiling rate applied by commercial banks for the day is 23,747 VND/USD and the floor rate is 22,365 VND/USD.

The opening hour rates at commercial banks stayed stable.

At 8:15 am, both Vietcombank and BIDV listed the buying rate at 23,250 VND per USD and the selling rate at 23,370 VND/USD, unchanged from May 15.

Techcombank also kept the rates unchanged at 23,230 VND/USD (buying) and 23,370 VND/USD (selling).

The daily reference exchange rate topped 23,000 VND per USD on April 23 and continued to set new highs since then. Analysts at the Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC) attributed the strong rise in the reference exchange rate to escalating trade tension between the US and China.

According to the analysts, the trade tension brought impacts on the exchange rates of many currencies, including the Vietnam dong.

They said the State Bank of Vietnam has the option of selling US dollars to keep the exchange rate stable. In that case there is a big possibility that the central bank would also pump capital through the OMO channel and bonds to keep validity stable and prevent sudden surge in inter-bank interest rates, according to the BVSC analyst group.-VNA