Dollar depreciates on black market

Unofficial exchange points sold the dollar at VND23,480, down 0.09% from Thursday.

Vietcombank kept the greenback unchanged at VND23,630.

The rate at Eximbank remained at VND23,600. Techcombank also kept the dollar stable at VND23,647.

The State Bank of Vietnam’s reference rate was unchanged at VND23,639.

The dollar has fallen against the dong by 0.42% since the beginning of the year.

Globally the U.S. dollar was on track for a second straight monthly loss on Friday on mounting expectations the Federal Reserve could soon end its aggressive rate-hike cycle, while the yen steadied near a one-week high ahead of a pivotal central bank decision, Reuters reported.

The Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) monetary policy decision on Friday takes center stage in Asia, where expectations are for new BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda to keep monetary settings ultra-loose at his debut policy meeting.

Focus will also be on Ueda’s tone, with investors closely looking out for any tweak in forward guidance.

Ahead of the decision, the Japanese yen was roughly 0.1% higher at 133.84 per U.S. dollar, and similarly gained more than 0.1% against the British pound.

“I don’t expect the BOJ to change its monetary policy this time, but the newly-released Tokyo CPI was higher than expected … I think this puts pressure on the BOJ, they might do something in the near future,” said Tina Teng, market analyst at CMC Markets.