Dollar tiptoes up on black market

By Dat Nguyen March 20, 2024 | 11:24 pm PT

An employee counts U.S. banknotes at a bank in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Tung

The U.S. dollar went up against the Vietnamese dong on the black market Thursday morning while remaining steady at banks.

Unofficial exchange points sold the greenback at VND25,591, up 0.04% from Wednesday.

Vietcombank kept the dollar unchanged at VND24,950.

The State Bank of Vietnam raised its reference rate by 0.03% to VND24,005.

The dollar has increased against the dong by 2.17% since the beginning of the year.

Globally the yen rose sharply on Thursday in part due to a broadly weaker dollar, but also drew support from expectations of further rate hikes from the Bank of Japan later this year and some jawboning efforts from Japanese government officials, Reuters reported.

The yen gained more than 0.5% to 150.46 per dollar, reversing some of its heavy losses in the wake of the BOJ's policy pivot.

The Australian dollar jumped after data on Thursday showed employment rebounded sharply in February and the jobless rate dived far below forecasts, pointing to a still-tight labour market.

The dollar index was little changed at 103.22, after having slid more than 0.5% in the previous trading session.