Vietnam

[LenaHuat]

Here, I often encounter groups of Vietnamese tourists shopping at Plaza Singapura. They are spotted buying baskets of Marks and Spencer biscuits, chocolates and underwear. Over in Israel, I see them all over too. They are picking up the travel bug in a very big way.

[kennynah]

no point saving their money....the Dong devalues everyday...

[LenaHuat]

Hi K , I think it's more of an issue of them multiplying their wealth nth fold 24/7 and they are splashing it all over. They save in foreign currencies.

[eauyong]

I heard they trust gold and USD, not Dong.

[winston]

Update: Vietnam tightens US$ holdings, caps interest rate

HANOI - Vietnam will force banks to keep more reserves against their foreign currency deposits from next month and impose a ceiling on dollar deposit rates, the central bank said, as it moves to curb dollarisation and ease pressure on the domestic currency.

The reserve ratio for non-term deposits and those with terms up to 12 months will be raised to 6 per cent from 4 per cent, and the ratio on deposits longer than 12 months will double to 4 per cent, the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement.

As of April 13, the ceiling for interest rates on dollar deposits would be 3 per cent, the central bank said in a separate circular, imposing the cap below the current market rates.

Vietnam, which has been facing a trade deficit every month since April 2009 and also falling foreign exchange reserves, has stepped up measures this year to curb the widespread circulation of the dollar in its economy.

Vietnam conducted a major devaluation of the dong in February, allowing it to fall 8.5 per cent against the dollar.

Vietnam's foreign exchange reserves last year dropped 12 per cent from 2009 to US$12.4 billion, enough to cover 1.9 months of imports at the end of 2010, the Asian Development Bank said on Wednesday.

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/lat ... 21,00.html?

[winston]

You may want to think twice about that trip to Vietnam ...


Hanoi street protest targets China

Vietnamese authorities tolerated a second day of anti-China protests in the capital yesterday as more than 100 people demonstrated against what they see as bullying behaviour by Beijing.


Source: SCMP

[winston]

Have you ever wonder why inflation in Vietnam is 17% and in China, it's only 5.5% ?


Vietnam hikes, battles inflation by Alexandra Stevenson .

Vietnam’s central bank is at it again, raising rates for the sixth time this year. On Wednesday the State Bank of Vietnam raised its repurchase rate by 100bp to 14 per cent.

This is the highest rate in the emerging market world, but with inflation running at more than 17 per cent, the move is unlikely to be the last.

Vietnam’s main benchmark index closed up 1.35 per cent at a jubilant 7-week high of 480.08 points.

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/0 ... inflation/

[winston]

And China has an inflation rate of only 5.5%.


Vietnam sees inflation at almost 21% in June

Vietnam's inflation rate, already one of the world's highest, rose again in June to almost 21 percent, according to official estimates released Friday.

The consumer price index is expected to rise 20.82 percent this month compared with June last year, the General Statistics Office said.

Prices have risen every month since August 2010, although inflation is still below a recent peak of 28.3 percent recorded in August 2008, and far from the triple-digit figures seen in the 1980s.

The latest increase had been expected by economists, who see price pressures easing toward the end of the year.

"We are expecting that inflation will (be) likely to peak in June 2011 at around 22 percent," Deepak Mishra, the World Bank's lead economist in Vietnam, said early this month.

He sees inflation gradually falling to about 15 percent by December, underpinned by government targets to control credit and liquidity.

The government, long focused on economic growth, now says fighting inflation is its top priority.

It has tightened monetary policy and set a series of targets to help stabilise an economy facing challenges including its struggling currency -- the dong -- and a trade deficit.

Among its goals, the government wants commercial banks to keep growth in credit, or loans, to below 20 percent this year. It also said public investment should be reduced.

"Confidence in the government strategy's success remains fragile," the International Monetary Fund said earlier this month.

"The immediate challenge will be to respond to the upward trend in inflation, and prevent it from feeding into higher inflation expectations and putting pressure on the dong."

This requires further increases in key interest rates, the IMF said, adding that markets must be persuaded that a tighter monetary policy will continue until inflation is seen firmly back in single digits.

The communist country has one of the top five inflation rates in the world, the United Nations said in May.

Food prices are a key driver. They were up more than 22 percent in the first half of this year, compared with the same period in 2010, GSO data showed.

The government this month said it hopes to keep inflation at about 15 percent this year, an upward revision from its earlier full-year target of seven percent.

Source: AFP Asian Edition

[winston]

Hosting Sporting Events & Exhibitions, Building High Speed Railways & Sky-Scrapers, Bullying other nations etc, are not signs that you have arrived.

It's how you treat your fellow human beings that shows whether you have arrived or not ..


Police force brutality on the rise

VIETNAM It started with a row over a motorbike helmet.

Eight days later a 53-year-old man was dead after an alleged beating by Vietnamese police, in a case activists say fits a pattern.


Source: SCMP

[kennynah]

i wana reserve a place at wu dang s和an...武当山。。。 quiet, peaceful, no police brutality, no foolish drunks, no muggings, no murders, etc... just fresh air and a bunch of monks... how nice...

but is there really a wudangshan?? i wonder