Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui

With the State Bank of Vietnam today increasing the interbank dollar exchange rate for the eighth time this month, the ceiling price at banks rose to VND20,930.

Banks are facing huge foreign exchange balance risks as lending in the US dollar has been soaring while deposits in the greenback are dwindling, according to statistics from the central bank.

State-owned firms in communist Vietnam have been ordered to sell US dollars to commercial banks, official media said Thursday, to address a rising trade deficit and stabilise a weak currency.

The Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung reaffirmed that the government will seek to eliminate the unofficial trade of gold bullion and tighten controls over foreign currency transactions.

The State Bank of Vietnam Governor Nguyen Van Giau announced that foreign exchange rates on the unofficial currency market will drop in coming days as the authorities launch a crackdown on illegal dollar hoarding and trading.

PHNOM PENH - A bank in Cambodia has stopped certain Vietnamese from getting dollars from its ATMs after a surge in withdrawals, apparently by traders taking advantage of a drop in the black market value of Vietnam's currency, the dong.

HANOI—Vietnam will impose price controls on certain commodities in an effort to tame inflation that has surged to the double digits, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said. He also urged the central bank to stabilize the dollar rate and gold prices.

HANOI—Vietnam's central bank said Thursday it will sell U.S. dollars on the local market to relieve pressure on the sliding Vietnamese dong, but a state official ruled out further devaluation of its currency this year.

PHNOM PENH — Les pays d'Asie du sud-est qui se reposent beaucoup sur le dollar pourraient s'inquiéter de sa chute, mais ils ne devraient pas pour autant réduire du jour au lendemain leur dépendance à l'égard du billet vert, préviennent les analystes.

Hanoi - The dollar rose against the dong on Vietnam's black market Thursday due to business demand for dollars and rising global gold prices.

Vietnam's foreign exchange market faces no looming shortage of dollars and enterprises are not accumulating the currency over inflation and other fears, a state-run newspaper cited a central bank official as saying.

Hanoi - Financial analysts Friday said they approved of Vietnam's move to devalue the dong, as the currency rose against the dollar on the country's black market. Gold traders, semi-official traders in dollars, were offering 19,450 dong to the dollar Friday in Hanoi, up from 19,300 on Thursday.

Vietnam's government has asked seven state-owned companies to "immediately sell" US dollars to banks in order to ease a dollar shortage and meet currency demands, according to a statement on the government's Web site.

For Ford, one of the greatest challenges doing business in Vietnam this year is not selling cars but finding enough US dollars to pay its overseas suppliers on time.