HCMC – The State Bank of Vietnam, or SBV, bought nearly US$4.9 billion in the first four months of this year, thus shoring up the country’s foreign exchange reserves, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

As the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Vietnamese dong remained at VND23,450 per dollar, the SBV, the central bank, continued stepping up dollar purchases from commercial banks, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said at a regular press conference today, May 5, on the nation’s socio-economic performance in April and in the January-April period.

According to the BIDV Securities Company, in January alone, the central bank purchased around US$2.78 billion, raising the country’s foreign reserves to nearly US$91.8 billion.

The VNDirect Securities Company forecast that Vietnam’s foreign reserves could reach an estimated US$102 billion by the end of this year.

With the foreign reserves rising, the SBV has pumped more money into the market.

Recently, many banks have lowered their deposit interest rates by 0.1-0.5 percentage point per year. The average lending interest rate is 9.56% per year, down 0.41% compared to the end of 2022.