Vietnam not pursues currency manipulation for unfair trade gain: C.bank governor

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Ngoc Thuy 16:37, 2019/06/06

The US Treasury report did not name any nation that has manipulated its currency, while Vietnam has provided additional data aimed at showing it was not holding down the value of the VND.

Vietnam does not use its macro policies, including monetary and foreign-exchange policies for unfair trade gain, affirmed Le Minh Hung, governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).

Illustrative photo.

Hung made the statement in response to a question raised at a hearing held by the National Assembly on June 6 regarding the government’s solutions in case Vietnam is added to the US’s expanded list of currency manipulation.

On May 29, the US Treasury Department put nine countries, including Vietnam, on its watch list over currency practices.

The US uses three criteria to determine if a country is a currency manipulator. Besides the current account surplus criterion, two other criteria are a bilateral goods trade surplus with the US of at least US$20 billion; and intervention in the foreign-exchange market that exceeds at least 2% of GDP.

Vietnam has met two of the three criteria, having a trade surplus with the US that has risen over the last decade to reach US$40 billion in 2018, twice the threshold of US$20 billion. Vietnam’s current account balance with the US has also been rising over the last decade, reaching a surplus of more than 5% of the GDP in the four quarters through June 2018, more than double the threshold of 2%, the US Treasury said.

However, its intervention in the foreign-exchange market was lower than 2% of the GDP.

According to Hung, the US Treasury report did not name any nation that has manipulated its currency, while Vietnam has provided additional data aimed at showing it was not holding down the value of the dong.

Vietnam has been consistent in its policies of stabilizing macro-economic conditions and controlling the inflation rate, Hung stated, adding Vietnam would continue to work with the US on this matter.

Bloomberg previously report the US had refrained from labeling Vietnam a currency manipulator based on new data the country provided the Treasury Department.

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