State firms hold dollars

Though the central bank has ordered State-owned firms to sell most of their foreign currencies to banks, only a few of them have done so.

In its Circular 13 issued on May 31, the central bank instructed State-owned corporations, after deducting the amount of foreign currency needed each month, to sell all dollars to banks in the first seven days of July and the first five days of each subsequent month.

However, most of the companies have seemingly defied the central bank’s order.

Although the days for selling the dollars have passed, there has been no surge in the amount of dollars sold to banks in the past week.

The Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV) is one of the biggest State-owned banks serving many State-owned groups and corporations.

An executive from the bank said State enterprises had a big demand for dollars for business this month, so the amount sold to the banks was sporadic.

The central bank earlier had expected the total amount of dollars sold by State enterprises to banks in July would total US$1.7 billion.

That meant that at least $170 million must have been sold to banks in each of the past several days, he said. However, the amount of dollars sold to banks was much lower than expected.

The demand for dollars among enterprises had risen slowly, but that is not enough to create pressure on the forex rate. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam banking industry, Vietnam finance, Vietnam financial