Vietnam central bank bought USD 4.9B in first 4 months to boost reserves

HANOI, May 5 (Reuters) – Vietnam’s central bank bought USD 4.9 billion from credit institutions in the first four months of this year to shore up its foreign exchange reserves, the investment minister said on Friday.

Well-managed monetary policies and stable exchange rate have enabled the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to continue to buy foreign currency to boost foreign reserves, minister Nguyen Chi Dung said in a government statement.

The central bank earlier said it bought USD 4 billion worth of U.S. dollars in the first quarter.

Vietnam late last year was forced to sell a large amount of dollars to the market to support its dong currency, which hit record low due to global situations.

Vietnam recorded a USD 6.35 billion trade surplus and USD 5.85 billion in foreign direct investment in the January-April period.

Analysts from VNDirect securities estimated that Vietnam’s foreign reserves could recover and reach USD 102 billion by the end of this year.

Vietnam rarely discloses the value of its foreign reserves.

Speaking at a government meeting, Dung also said the real estate market “has shown signs of recovery”.

According to Dung, corporate bond issuance in the first four months of this year fell by more than 67% over the same period.

While bond redemption before maturity reached 24.3 trillion dong (USD 1.04 billion) and outstanding corporate bond debt as of April 21 was USD 48.19 billion, or 12% of last year’s gross domestic product.

(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen; Editing by Martin Petty)