VN cuts midpoint rate to VND20,713 per dollar
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Vietnam's central bank said on Saturday it had lowered the official exchange rate between the dong and the dollar by another 0.1 percent to VND20,713 per dollar after a major devaluation on Friday.
The new official rate applies to interbank transactions on Saturday, the State Bank of Vietnam said on its website (www.sbv.gov.vn).
The country's interbank market is closed on weekends.
Given the latest midpoint rate, the dollar could move between VND20,506 and VND20,920 in interbank transactions, within the central bank-imposed daily trading band of 1 percent.
The interbank rates would therefore stay below the unofficial market rate, which stood at VND21,520/21,580 per dollar on Saturday, from VND21,450/21,550 on Friday after the central bank's devaluation of 8.5 percent.
Vietnam devalued its beleaguered currency on Friday for the third time in a year, as authorities started to try to address economic problems that critics say have been brushed aside in the pursuit of growth.
After the devaluation, the central bank said it could raise or cut the midpoint rate in time, instead of only lowering the dong against the dollar as it has done since at least June 2008.
"In the near future, the State Bank will regulate the exchange rate in a relatively flexible way in both directions," Nguyen Quang Huy, head of the central bank's foreign exchange department, said in a statement on Friday.
