Vietnam Treasury buys $150mln in first time public offering

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FILE PHOTO: A Vietnam Dong note is seen in this illustration photo May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration

 

HANOI (Reuters) - The State Treasury of Vietnam bought $150 million in the spot market through a public offering for the first time, the government said on Saturday, with the money to be pumped into the market early next week.

 

"The spot foreign currency offering is a new implementation which has just been approved by the prime minister to actively purchase foreign currencies from banks for foreign currency payments of the state budget," the government said in a statement.

 

Vietnam was labelled as currency manipulator by the administration of former President Donald Trump last year, but in April the Treasury Department dropped that designation. Vietnam said it had never intervened in the currency market to gain an unfair trade advantage.

 

"In this first offering, the Treasury bought dollars from 30 commercial banks with bids selected from low to high," the statement said.

 

On Friday, the Vietnamese dong traded at 22,770 per dollar on the interbank market.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-09-13

 

(Editing by William Mallard)