Reference exchange rate keeps rising on July 12

Hanoi (VNA) - The daily reference exchange rate for VND/USD continued the rising trend on July 12, going up 5 VND to 22,652 VND/USD.

With the current trading band of +/- 3 percent, the ceiling rate applied to commercial banks during the day is 23,331 VND/USD and the floor rate 21,973 VND/USD.

The rates listed at commercial banks were rather stable.

Both Vietcombank and BIDV maintained their rates unchanged from July 11, listing the buying rate at 23,005 VND/USD, and the selling rate at 23,075 VND/USD.

Meanwhile, Techcombank added 5 VND to both rates, raising the buying rate to 22,985 VND/USD and the selling rate to 23,085 VND/USD.

The reference exchange rate opened this week (July 9) down but then went on a rising trend.

Foreign exchange rates are likely to rise strongly due to concerns that the US-China trade war may be escalating, according to a report on Vietnamese macroeconomy for the second quarter released by the Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR) under the University of Economics, an affiliate of the Hanoi National University, on July 11.

The report said the Fed’s second interest rate hike in the second quarter of this year was one of the key factors pushing up US dollar prices and depreciating the domestic currency, thus affecting the US dollar-Vietnamese dong exchange rate in the period under review.

The report went on to say that the foreign currency reserve (FCR) stands at 63.5 billion USD, equivalent to nearly 13 weeks of imports, and is the minimum national FCR recommended by the International Monetary Fund.

It suggested that Vietnam should accumulate more foreign currency reserves to stay confident in the global integration process. -VNA