Central bank buys $4.9B to pump up foreign exchange reserves
💰 The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has bought US$4.9 billion from commercial banks in the first four months to increase the national foreign exchange reserves.
💡 It bought nearly $1 billion last month alone, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said at a meeting Friday.
🔮 VNDirect analysts forecast that Vietnam’s foreign exchange reserves could increase to $102 billion by the end of this year.
🧮 Vietnam’s economic fact sheet:
🔹The Consumer Price Index in the first four months rose 3.84% year-on-year, lower than the first quarter’s 4.18%.
🔹Core inflation in April increased by 4.56% year-on-year.
🔹Corporate bond issuance value dropped 67% year-on-year in the first four months to VND25.7 trillion ($1.09 billion).
🔹Trade value in the period fell over 15% to $102 billion, and the country posted a trade surplus of $6.35 billion.
🎯 To reach the GDP growth target of 6.5% this year, taxes and fees need to be reduced, along with interest rates. Average loan interest is now at 9.56% a year, down 0.41 percentage points from the end of 2022.