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State bank’s policy cools down gold price

VGP – Gold price, foreign exchange rate, and the foreign currency market have signalled signs of cooling down over the past week following strong measures employed by the State Bank of Việt Nam.

October 10, 2011 1:48 PM GMT+7

The central bank said that it would secure the exchange rate stability until the end of this year with variation rate under 1%.

No chance for gold speculation

Earlier this morning, gold price fell down to over VND 43 million a tael, representing  the lowest figure since September 26.

The trend was attributed to the State Bank of Việt Nam’s decision to allow five commercial banks (Eximbank, ACB, Sacombank, Techcombank and DongA Bank) to re-open their foreign gold trading accounts.

Local gold price is forecast to continue dipping in the context of minor fluctuations in the world market though it is now VND 1 million higher than the global price compared to the difference of VND 3-4 million several weeks ago.

Mr. Nguyễn Thanh Toại, ACB Vice Director, said with the new measures for the gold market, the difference in global and domestic gold prices may continue to step back to the maximum of VND 400,000 a tael.

Other banks like Sacombank, Eximbank, DongA Bank all said transactions have plunged by 50-70%.

Ms. Nguyễn Thị Kim Xuyến, DongA Bank Vice Director said “Customers become more cautious about purchasing gold.”

Falling demand for dollar

The decrease in gold price has strongly affected the USD/VND exchange rate.

In the morning of October 5, the State Bank of Việt Nam suprisingly increased the inter-bank exchange rate to VND 20,638 per dollar from the previous VND 20,628. Now, the rate stands at VND 20,653 per dollar.

Dr. Lê Xuân Nghĩa said the current exchange rate is quite stable, but pressures stemmed from the last months still remain.

The central bank has requested credit institutions to closely monitor loans in foreign currency.

By Hải Minh