Foreign reserves keep growing

December 11, 2010 | 10:49

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Overseas remittances and foreign investment inflows picked up in November, helping ease pressure on foreign currency reserves, the State Bank of Viet Nam said yesterday.

Remittances reached $7.6 billion in the first 11 months of the year, exceeding an estimate of $7.3 billion earlier last week.

The department projected that remittances in December would total an aditional $770 million, raising the total remittances for the year to $8 billion – an increase of 25 per cent over last year.

Among other sources of foreign currency inflows, foreign indirect investment, including foreign investment in stocks and invest-ment funds, also increased to $800 million during the period, besting a prior estimate of $712 million.

Disbursements of foreign direct investment also rose 9.9 per cent during the first 11 months of the year to a total of $9.95 billion.

"These capital flows have helped the foreign exchange market stabilise and develop positively," the department said.

Enterprises have begun selling US dollars back to banks, and the value of the dollar on the black market has cooled to about VND21,030-21,070 – down VND270 since last Monday.

On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund said on its website that Viet Nam's foreign reserves were at a low ebb at the end of September, sufficient to cover only 1.8 months of imports.

The reserves were projected to rise to $15.4 billion by the end of this year from $14.1 billion at the end of 2009, when they were sufficient to cover fewer than two-and-a-half months of imports.

On the non-deliverable forward market, a currency futures market, the dollar yesterday was expected to hit VND21,080.01 by next month, VND21,455.13 by March, VND21,971.69 in six months, and nearly VND22,882.80 by December of next year.

VNS

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