Vietnam’s Central Bank to Buy Foreign Currency Twice Weekly From November 11
The State Bank of Vietnam will begin buying foreign currency on Mondays and Wednesdays at VND 25,500 per USD. It has not announced a purchase limit. ABS Securities estimates that a hypothetical USD 6 billion in purchases would inject VND 153 trillion into the banking system.
The State Bank of Vietnam announced that it will buy foreign currency on the spot market every Monday and Wednesday starting November 11, 2026, at an intervention purchase rate of VND 25,500 per USD. Banks and other credit institutions that sell dollars will receive dong at that rate. The central bank has not announced a limit for each purchase, so the total amount of dong that will be injected cannot yet be determined.
Nguyễn Thế Minh, head of investment banking at ABS Securities, said spot purchases differ from the foreign exchange swap operation on November 6. That swap injected up to VND 48.798 trillion into the banking system, to be withdrawn after 182 days. Dong supplied through spot purchases has no agreed withdrawal date, while the dollars purchased enter foreign exchange reserves.
ABS Securities outlined three hypothetical purchase volumes: USD 2 billion, USD 6 billion and USD 10 billion, corresponding to injections of VND 51 trillion, VND 153 trillion and VND 255 trillion, respectively. The injection under its baseline USD 6 billion scenario would exceed the outstanding balance of open market operations at the time. The firm said bank liquidity could improve, though the effect would remain below 1% of total credit.
A lower exchange rate and increased foreign currency supply toward year-end have created conditions for purchases. Nguyễn Thế Minh noted that the interbank exchange rate fell to VND 25,547 per USD on November 9, while the banking system’s funding needs were still rising ahead of year-end. The consumer price index rose 5.09% year on year in October, which could also limit the impact of the monetary injection on markets.
ABS Securities found that Vietnam’s benchmark stock index rose one month after 11 of the State Bank of Vietnam’s 13 foreign currency purchases between 2016 and 2023. But the sample is small, and some observations overlap with Lunar New Year seasonal effects and other operations. The figures therefore do not establish that the purchases caused stocks to rise. The firm expects this round of purchases to support the stock market, though possibly less than the historical average.
Source: VietVance
