Vietnam not pursues currency manipulation for unfair trade: central bank

The statement was made after the U.S. Department of the Treasury included Vietnam to a list of ten countries that are possibly using exchange rates to gain an export advantage over the U.S.

Three of the ten countries, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam were from Southeast Asia and retained on the list from earlier report in May 2019.

Ten major trading partners U.S. puts in the monitoring list are China, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, and Vietnam.

By rule, the Treasury retains countries on the monitoring list for at least two consecutive reports when they are first cited. The U.S. government found that Vietnam had violated only one of the three criteria in this latest report, down from two in May.

In May report, Vietnam for the first time became one of nine countries to be monitored for meeting two standards on a trade surplus with the U.S.

Vietnam reported a trade surplus with the U.S. rose to almost $47 billion in 2019 from over $34 billion in 2018. With the trade surplus, Vietnam became the sixth-highest among the U.S.’s major trading partners.

Current account surplus is equivalent to at least 2% of GDP, central bank says.

Vietnam’s central bank said it will implement monetary policy to contain inflation, stabilize the macroeconomy, and flexibly regulate exchange rates not to create an unfair competitive edge in international trade.

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