(Reuters) - Vietnam's central bank will keep unchanged the dollar/dong exchange rate to facilitate both exports and imports, a deputy governor said on Wednesday, against recent market expectations of a depreciation of the Vietnamese dong.
"Depreciating the dong will help exports but not much, while imports will face difficulties," Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong of the State Bank of Vietnam told a news conference.
She said the dong weakening recently against the dollar was due mainly to psychological reasons and also as the U.S. currency strengthened globally.
On Wednesday the dong edged up to 21,475 per dollar on the interbank market from 21,500 dong the previous day, but it has weakened 0.5 percent from Dec. 31, 2014.
The central bank has said it aimed to keep the dong depreciation at less than 2 percent for the whole of 2015. (Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Writing by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Martin Petty)
original source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/25/vietnam-economy-rate-idUSL3N0WR2W520150325