Vietnam spent US$300 million from its foreign currency reserves on Monday propping up the local currency. This brings the total State Bank spend to US$2 billion since April when it resolved to use its forex reserves to keep the dong from going above 25,450 to a single US dollar, according to a report from Asian Commercial Bank–more commonly known as ACB.
This is a significant jump from last Wednesday when ACB estimated that the bank had spent just US$900 million.
Vietnam is cagey about its foreign currency reserves and does not regularly publish forex data. It does, however, periodically communicate what it has on hand with the International Monetary Fund. The last report from the IMF, in September of 2023, recorded forex reserves of US$87.6 billion.
At the beginning of April, the Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam said the bank had about US$100 billion in its reserves. However, research from WiGroup last week estimated Vietnam’s reserves to be only about US$90 billion.
That being the case, with the IMF recommending enough foreign currency on hand to cover three months worth of imports, and imports reaching just shy of US$30 billion in April, these reserves are dangerously low.
Of note, the State Bank has had to intervene in the local currency market a number of times to keep the dong from devaluing over the last two years–for more information see: The Dong’s Wild Ride: Unpacked