On April 06, 2022, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong, of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), had a working session with the delegation of the United States Department of the Treasury headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary Robert Kaproth.
SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong welcomes Deputy Assistant Secretary Robert Kaproth of the US Department of the Treasury.
At the meeting, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong made high evaluation for the frequent communication, exchanges and technical discussions between the two sides with a view to facilitating each side’s understanding of and sharing common perspectives on the latest developments in Vietnam’s currency market; thereby, helping the US side to reflect objectively and appropriately in the Report on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of the Major Trading Partners of the United States (the Report). Particularly, the SBV Governor highly appreciated for the US Treasury’s statement that it was by far satisfied with the progress made by Vietnam, and continued to not identify Vietnam as a currency manipulator in the December 2021 Report. This has recognized the SBV's efforts in managing the monetary policy and the exchange rate to ensure smooth operations of the market, maintaining the macro-economic stability, controlling the inflation and improving the exchange rate flexibility. On this occasion, the SBV Governor reaffirmed that Vietnam's exchange rate policy, within the general framework of the monetary policy, with the overarching goal of maintaining the macro-economic stability, controlling the inflation, not aiming at creating unfair competitive advantages in international trade.
About Vietnam's macroeconomic situation, the SBV Governor shared that Vietnam iscurrently in the process of recovering the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic, and is going to fully normlize all production and business activities with some positive signs, such as: the GDP growth in the first quarter of 2022 was estimated at 5.03% over the same period last year; the domestic currency market has been stable; the average inflation in the first quarter of 2022 was controlled at 1.92%. The Governor also shared about the challenges faced by the SBV in operating the monetary and the interest rate policies in the current new context.
Overview of the meeting.
From the side of the U.S Department of the Treasury, Deputy Assistant Secretary Robert Kaproth acknowledged the engagement efforts of the SBV and made high evaluation for the SBV's proactive and flexible management of the monetary policy tools, maintaining the stability of the currency and the foreign exchange market, as well as controlling the inflation in line with the target.
Toward the end of the meeting, the two sides affirmed that they would keep frequent communication in order to share their respective views on any arising issues. Additionally, they also committed to maintaining a close cooperative partnership in the coming time.
LK