US dollar prices increase in the flea market on march 11. — Photo thefinancialist.com

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — While US dollar rates have remained stable in most commercial banks, they have increased sharply in the flea market since March 9.

On March 11, Vietcombank set the buying and selling rates of each dollar at VND21,330 and VND21,380 respectively.

At the same time, Techcombank, BIDV, ACB and EximBank, besides VietinBank, DongABank and Agribank set their buying rates between VND21,315 and VND21,330, and the selling rates between VND21,380 and VND21,390.

Those rates have remained unchanged since last week in most local banks.

Meanwhile, the rates soared in the flea market. Quoc Trinh Gold and Jewellery Company in Ha Trung Street, which is popular for currency exchange in Ha Noi, bought each dollar for VND21,650 and sold each for VND21,680.

The company said that the increase amounted to VND100 per dollar, compared with the rates in the flea market last week.

Since January 7, SBV has increased the inter-bank exchange rate from VND21,246 to VND21,458 for each US dollar. With an effective one per cent margin, the ceiling rate was VND21,673 per dollar.

Thus, the rate in the flea market is higher than SBV's ceiling rate.

According to thesaigontimes.vn, the SBV branch in HCM City reported on March 10 that it was not the peak time for local enterprises to spend foreign currency, confirming that the market's demand and supply of foreign currency were stable.

The SBV branch added that the rise in dollar rates in the flea market was only due to a psychological effect.

According to the newspaper, there were rumours that SBV will increase the inter-bank exchange rate for the US dollar by another one per cent, after the increase in January.

In the world market, according to reuters.com, the US dollar rallied across the board as the prospect of the first rise in US interest rates in almost a decade stoked global volatility, hitting stocks and oil prices. — VNS