US dollars in Vietnam were being sold for as much as 26,000 dong each over the weekend, according to CafeF. This is about 550 dong higher than is permitted through legal channels. For background, Vietnam works on a floating peg by which the dong can be traded at 5 percent with sider of a mid-rate set by the State Bank of Vietnam–the SBV–each day. That rate was 24,256 on Saturday with a top selling price of 25,450.
The SBV struggled to keep the dong from devaluing beyond 25,450 last week. Over the course of the week it issued US$1.2 billion in treasury bills to suck up liquidity and sold about US$520 million from its US dollar reserves, but still finished the week where it started. This latest development suggests that there might be more of the same this week.
See also: The Dong’s Wild Ride: Unpacked