Dollar weakens against dong

The dollar is sold at Vietcombank for VND25,463, down 0.03% from Wednesday.

It fell 0.31% to VND25,830 at unofficial exchange points.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) lowered its reference rate by 0.03% to VND24,251.

The dollar has increased against the dong by 4.27% since the beginning of the year.

Globally, the dollar was on the back foot on Thursday after U.S. economic data continued to point to slowing growth, offering limited relief to the yen, which remained pinned near a 38-year low that had the market on alert for government intervention, Reuters reported.

The euro and sterling both consolidated off three-week highs against the greenback, as voters hit the polls in the UK later in the day and investors awaited a second round of voting in France on Sunday.

"Slowly but surely, what we're starting to see is a bit of a turn in the U.S. economic data flow," said Rodrigo Catril, senior currency strategist at National Australia Bank (NAB).

Minutes of the Fed's June meeting acknowledged the U.S. economy appeared to be slowing and "price pressures were diminishing."

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of peer currencies, was close to flat at 105.32 after briefly weakening to its lowest since June 13 at 105.04 on Wednesday.

The dollar's drop helped a battered yen edge 0.12% higher versus the greenback to 161.53.

The euro was 0.02% lower at $1.0784, off its highest since June 12 against the greenback touched on Wednesday.