VietNamNet Bridge – The dollar price has been decreasing in recent days, which has prompted people to rush to sell dollars to stop losses.  Meanwhile, the free market has halted transactions, which has been blamed on the drastic measures by the State Bank of Vietnam to stabilize the dollar price.

The dollar market has been continuously going up and down since February 24, one day after the government announced the resolution to stabilize the macro economy. However, the downward trend proves to be clearer. On March 4, after a lot of ups and down, the dollar price on the black market dropped to 21,730-21,800 dong per dollar (purchase and sale prices), a decrease of 700 dong per dollar from the price one week earlier.

Analysts say since Tet, people are uninterested in the dollar . Investors wish to “dispose” the dollars they have, while foreign currency exchange shops “turn their back” to the proposals to purchase dollars, therefore, they offer a record high gap between the purchase and sale prices of 150-200 dong per dollar.

Rushing to sell dollars

Until March 7, the black market had been very bustling, but most of the visitors to the market were sellers. Bich Ngoc in District 1 in HCM City told Dat Viet that she brought 3000 dollars to a foreign exchange shop on Dong Khoi street to sell on March 1. “Some days ago, I bought dollars at 21,900 dong per dollar, but today I have to sell at 21,700 dong. Despite the loss, I have to sell because I fear the dollar price may drop further,” she said.

Fearing the dollar price will continue decreasing as a result of the drastic measures applied by the State Bank of Vietnam, a lot of people have been rushing to sell dollars to prevent losses. The owner of KD Gold Shop on Nguyen Thai Binh Road in Tan Binh district in HCM City said the dollar has plummeted because people are rushing to sell out, even though foreign exchange shops have widened the gap between the sale and the purchase prices.

“We dare not take on dollars in big quantities. We only purchase dollars from loyal clients to keep good relations with them,” she said.

On March 2, when the dollar price on the black market dropped to 21,640 dong per dollar, those people who could not sell dollars tried to deposit dollars at banks.

Nguyen Thi Thuy, a client seen making transactions at ACB in HCM City related that she had withdrawn dollar deposits at the bank to sell on the black market, but gold shops have refused to buy her dollars. Therefore, she has come back to the bank to deposit dollars. The interest rate is 4.35 percent per annum.

Where to invest?

“I don’t want to keep dollars because I am afraid the dollar will depreciate, but I don’t want to keep dong as well. It is too risky to buy gold at this moment,” said Hoang Van Nguyen in Thu Duc District in HCM City, who has sold 7000 dollars.

“I have heard that some banks are offering high interest rates of 17-18 percent per annum. So I have decided to deposit at banks. I will think about what I should do later,” he said.

Pham Thi Thuy Duong, who has withdrawn deposits from Techcombank, also complained that she does not know what to do with her money. “So I have to make deposits at banks,” she said.

Hanoi’s dollar market halts transactions

To many people’s surprise, the black market in Hanoi unexpectedly halted transactions in the afternoon of March 7. The market opened in the morning with the opening prices of 21,500-21,680 dong per dollar. However, many people, who brought dollars to sell in the afternoon, realized that many exchange shops closed the doors.

Bringing with herself 20 million dong to Ha Trung street, which is called the “foreign currency street” in Hanoi, Nguyen Kim Hanh, a cosmetics trader, was told that the shop had stopped transactions. Hanh still wonders where to buy dollars, because she needs dollars to import goods for sale.

The Bao Tin Minh Chau Gold, Silver and Gemstone Company has also halted dollar transactions at all of its three transaction points in Hanoi.

Representative of a exchange shop in Hanoi said that negative information has appeared on the market since March 4. Some sources said that the central bank will inspect authorized exchange shops and apply drastic measures to force the prices down.

Besides, in recent days, the dollar price has been decreasing continuously, thus causing losses to dollar traders. Therefore, many dollar traders have decided to halt transactions.

Le Khac