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Vietnam ready to sell forex to stabilise exchange rate: newspaper

MAY 27, 20159:34 AM

[HANOI] Vietnam's central bank stands ready to help stabilise the dollar/dong exchange rate, a deputy governor was quoted on Wednesday by a state-run newspaper as saying.

The State Bank of Vietnam "is ready to sell foreign currency for intervention to keep the exchange rate stable within the band committed at the start of the year", Nguyen Thi Hong was reported saying by the official Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper.

On May 7 the central bank, which has committed to keeping the Vietnamese dong move within a 2 percent band against the dollar for the whole of 2015, devalued the dong for the second time this year to spur exports and curb demand for imports that has left it with a hefty trade deficit.

The dong fell further to 21,860 per dollar on Vietnam's interbank market on Tuesday, down 0.98 per cent from 21,645 dong/dollar on May 7, after the government said the country posted a trade deficit of $3 billion in the first five months of 2015.

REUTERS