.jpg)
HANOI - Vietnam's international reserves hit $13.85 billion by the end of March this year, a 42 percent slump from the end of 2008, figures compiled by the International Monetary Fund show.
The figure confirms that Vietnam's reserves continued to fall well into this year as the dong remained under pressure against the dollar.
The State Bank of Vietnam does not make public the current level of foreign exchange reserves, leaving outside economists guessing about a figure seen as a critical gauge of the country's ability to keep its beleaguered currency on an even keel.
The International Monetary Fund's International Financial Statistics September update for Vietnam, posted on the IMF website, said total reserves minus gold stood at $13.85 billion at the end of March, falling from $15.49 billion in February and $15.74 billion in January.
At the end of 2008 reserves stood at $23.89 billion, it showed.
Vietnam has devalued the dong or adjusted its trading band against the dollar several times over the past two years, with the currency under depreciation pressure from a structural trade deficit, high inflation and chronically weak levels of confidence.
The central bank has lowered the midpoint reference rate around which the dong is allowed trade against the dollar in a fixed band by some 15 percent since mid-2008. The latest devaluation, a 2 percent move, was taken on Aug. 18.
The IMF had said in that June reserves equaled about seven weeks of imports, although the coffers had increased by about $1 billion by that point in the second quarter.
On Wednesday, the dong hovered around VND19,500 per dollar -- the weak end of its 3 percent trading band -- on interbank and unofficial markets.
