State Bank of Vietnam to Begin Spot Dollar Purchases on November 11

The State Bank of Vietnam announced a plan to buy spot US dollars from November 11, 2026, at VND 25,500 per dollar. Transactions will take place on Mondays and Wednesdays; if a scheduled day falls on a public holiday, the transaction will move to the next working day. Eligible sellers are credit institutions and foreign bank branches with positive foreign exchange positions. The amount each institution may sell is capped at what is needed to bring its foreign exchange position back into balance. The central bank has not announced an overall purchase limit for each session.

The State Bank of Vietnam is using foreign exchange operations to manage the market and stabilize the exchange rate.（VietVance）

On the morning of November 10, the State Bank of Vietnam set the central exchange rate at VND 25,600 per dollar, down VND 10 from the previous trading session. On November 6, it had carried out a 182-day USD/VND swap operation capped at USD 2 billion, with a value date of November 9: it bought dollars on the spot market at VND 24,399 per dollar and agreed to sell back the corresponding amount at VND 24,704 per dollar when the swap matures.

The two operations differ in how long they provide Vietnamese dong to the banking system. When the swap matures, participating institutions must buy back the dollars as agreed and return the dong; spot dollar purchases carry no agreement under the same contract to sell the dollars back at maturity. Nguyễn Quang Huy of Nguyễn Trãi University said the swap helps banks plan funding across the year-end, but its effect on deposit and lending rates still depends on the actual transaction volume, allocation of funds and demand for credit.

Phạm Chí Quang, head of the State Bank of Vietnam’s Monetary Policy Department, said the central bank is coordinating credit, interest rate, exchange rate and liquidity tools while monitoring inflation. According to the Import-Export Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam was estimated to have recorded a trade surplus of USD 6.8 billion in October 2026, narrowing its cumulative trade deficit for the first 10 months to about USD 12.7 billion. MBS Research expects the USD/VND exchange rate to fluctuate between VND 26,400 and VND 26,600 per dollar, although its forecast remains subject to year-end exchange rate pressure.

Source: VietVance