STATE BANK OF VIETNAM BANKING ACADEMY Foreign Language Faculty GRADUATION THESIS DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM Student : To Viet Huong Lecturers : Can Thuy Lien (M.A) Nguyen Hong Thang (Ph.D) 30th May 2012 DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM DECLARATION I hereby declare that this graduation thesis is based on my work except for quotations and citations which have been duly acknowledged. I also declare that it has not been previously or simultaneously submitted at Banking Academy or other institutions. Signature ____________________ To Viet Huong i DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I have been supported and encouraged by many people to complete my graduation thesis. First of all, I would like to thank my lecturers MA.
Can Thuy Lien and PhD. Nguyen Hong Thang, Banking Academy. They have kindly helped and supported me by giving me a great number of useful advice and instructions. Besides, I also would like to send my thanks to my teachers at Banking Academy, especially at Foreign Language Faculty and Banking Faculty, who have given me a lot of information and references.
The last but not least, my special thanks go to my family, who always stand by my side to support me. ii DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM ABSTRACT This graduation thesis is a brief analysis of the dollarization in Vietnam in terms of deposit, credit and cash since 2000. Firstly, some basic knowledge about this phenomenon is covered in the theoretical framework. Based on this foremost information, the next part of the thesis provides readers with the characteristics of the dollarization in Vietnam.
The causes of this problem in the case of Vietnam are then clarified. In the latter part, the thesis focuses on the impacts of dollarization on Vietnamese Economy, in both positive and negative manners. However, the thesis concentrates on the negative ones, which are specially prominent, to discuss about reduction solutions. The final words draw the conclusions that dollarization mainly brings disadvantages to Vietnam.
Furthermore, the thesis reflects facts about the current partly dollarized status of Vietnamese economy, which poses considerable risks for the stability of financial sector. The conclusions also specify that it is necessary for the Government and related ministries to find suitable solutions to the problem. iii DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.
vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .1: Concept and Classification. The Concept of Dollarization. Classification of Dollarization .3: Causes of Dollarization .1: Modern Monetary Structure .2: Weak Banking and Financial System.
10 vi DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM 2.3: Open Economy Policy .4: Unstable Domestic Currency .4: Impacts of Dollarization. 15 CHAPTER 3: THE DOLLARIZATION SITUATION IN VIETNAM .1: Dollarization Indices in Vietnam .2: Causes of Dollarization in Vietnam .1: Unstable Domestic Currency .2: Open Economy Policy .3: Impacts of Dollarization on Vietnamese Economy. 34 vi DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION .47 vi DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES List of Tables Page Table 1: Dollarization level in Vietnam 19 Table 2: Increase rate of M2 21 Table 3: Omissions and Errors in BoP of Vietnam 25 List of Figures Figure 1: Deposit Dollarization 18 Figure 2: Credit Dollarization 23 Figure 3: USD/VND exchange rate 26 Figure 4: The Volume of Remittance to Vietnam 27 Figure 5: Turns of Foreign Tourists 28 Figure 6: Import – Export Turnover 30 Figure 7: Implemented FDI 33 vii DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ADB Asian Development Bank AGRIBANK Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development FCD foreign currency deposit FDI Foreign Direct Investment IMF International Monetary Fund JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency SBV the State Bank of Vietnam USD U.S Dollar VND Vietnam Dong WB World Bank viii DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Dollarization is a common problem in many developing countries having experienced high inflation rate, including Vietnam. Under dollarization, people tend to hold foreign currencies instead of the local currency for the store-of-value and medium-of-exchange purposes.
In a dollarized country, the domestic currency is depreciated and it becomes less attractive. Along with that, USD is used more frequently in transactions. Actually, dollarization brings an economy certain economic advantages such as promotion of investments, chances to compete or deduction in transaction fee. However, this phenomenon has many serious disadvantages too, especially in the case of high inflation.
It erodes the belief of the public on the domestic currency, decreases the efficiency of monetary policy and other business activities. Therefore, it is necessary for the Government and the Central Bank to find a suitable solution to reduce and end this problem step by step. This thesis discusses the dollarization process in Vietnam from 2000 to the present. Theoretically, dollarization helps an economy reduce the pressure of inflation, increase foreign investments, and promote the economic growth.
In reality, it is true in the case of Vietnam. After the financial crisis, it seems that these positive impacts of dollarization are the prior target of our economy. However, according to Dr. Le Xuan 1 DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM Nghia, Deputy Chair of the National Finance Supervision Council, “Vietnam is following a process on easing the dollarization and it hopes the dollarization would be stopped by the end of 2013”.
The question given is that why Vietnam plans to completely end the dollarization in 2013 although it has good impacts on Vietnamese economy. This graduation thesis analyzes the specific causes of the dollarization in Vietnam and its impacts on our economy. It starts with the concept of dollarization, forms of dollarization, dollarization indices, and its causes and effects. Basing this theoretical background, the thesis identifies Vietnam as a partly dollarized country and analyzes the dollarization situation in Vietnam in the next section.
In this section, the causes of dollarization and especially, the negative impacts of dollarization on Vietnam are concentrated on to answer the question mentioned above. In the last part, we have a summary and some conclusions about this phenomenon. Vietnam experienced more risks and disadvantages from dollarization than advantages. The thesis also suggests some ways to reduce the dollarization in Vietnam.
Scope of Study We collect data and analyze the dollarization process in Vietnam from 2000 to 2011. 2 DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM Methodology In this thesis, we use four main methods of study including: Quantitative analysis Qualitative analysis Comparison Synthesis Organization of thesis Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework Chapter 3: The Dollarization Situation in Vietnam Chapter 4: Conclusion and Recommendation 3 DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2. Concept and Classification 2. The Concept of Dollarization Nowadays, “Dollarization” has become a familiar terminology in the modern economy.
In fact, there is no official definition of this phenomenon. Dollarization is generally understood as the situation when the foreign currencies play more important roles or even replace the domestic currency as a store of value, unit of account, and/or medium of exchange in an economy. This term is not only applied to the use of the United States Dollar (USD) but also to other foreign currencies. However, USD is known as the most popular currency when the term “dollarization” is mentioned.
Observations describe the appearance of a dollarization process when people use the dollars as a store of value in order to protect their wealth against inflation. Step by step, the foreign currency, especially USD, attains a more important role to be used as unit of account; highly valued goods are then priced in dollars. And then, dollars are used as the main payment currency even in most transactions. 4 DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM 2.
Classification of Dollarization There are two main criteria which are used to classify Dollarization: form and scope. Form Criterion DE NICOLO ET Al. (2005:1699) has made a distinction among three forms of partial dollarization. It was said that “It is useful to distinguish among three generic forms of dollarization that broadly match the three functions of money: payment dollarization (also known in the literature as currency substitution), is residents’ use for transaction purposes of foreign currency in cash, demand deposits, or reserve at the central bank; financial dollarization (also referred to as asset substitution) consists of residents’ holding of financial assets or liabilities in foreign currency; real dollarization is the indexing, formally or de facto, of local prices and wages to the dollar”.
According to this criterion, Dollarization is divided into three types: Payment Dollarization, Financial Dollarization and Real Dollarization. Payment Dollarization is the use of foreign currency as the mean of payment in an economy. It is calculated by the total of deposit dollarization and cash dollarization. 5 DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM Financial Dollarization is the use of foreign currency to index deposits, loans, and any other financial instruments.
Real Dollarization is the use of foreign currency to index wages, prices and real contracts in an economy. Scope Criterion According to the Scope criterion, the Dollarization is divided into three different types: Unofficial Dollarization, Semi – official Dollarization and Official Dollarization. Unofficial Dollarization is the situation when residents of a country hold their financial assets denominated in foreign currencies, in spite of the fact that they lack the legal acceptance. In other words, Unofficial Dollarization occurs when a foreign currency is widely used in an economy without official acknowledgement from the country.
It is the most popular type of Dollarization. In an unofficially dollarized economy, the foreign currency exists in forms of: Foreign bonds and non-cash assets in foreign countries Deposits in foreign countries in board Foreign deposits at domestic banks 6 DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM Bonds and other valuable papers in foreign currencies Semi – official Dollarization can be known as the circumstance in which both domestic and foreign currencies are used legally. In semi – official dollarized countries, the foreign currency is even dominant in bank deposits; however it only plays the secondary role in salary or tax payments, and daily expenses. These countries maintain the Central Bank to implement their own monetary policies.
Official Dollarization is also known as Full Dollarization that means “taking the next step, from informal, limited Dollarization (we defined it as Unofficial) to full, official use of the foreign currency in all transactions” (IMF Publication Service). It happens when a country adopts a foreign currency as the only legal tender, and stops issuing the domestic currency. In this case, the domestic currency takes the minor role, only exists in form of coin with small denominations; or it even isn’t in the circulation anymore. There are only a few countries that adopt a foreign currency as legal tender.
Generally, a country applies Official Dollarization only when it fails to implement and stabilize economic programs. 7 DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM 2.2: Dollarization Indices In a country, people can hold foreign currencies in three main ways: foreign currencies in their hands, foreign currency deposits in domestic financial institutions and foreign currencies held aboard. The accurate measurement of the rate of dollarization depends a lot on the limitation that the government (or the central bank) imposes on some factors, such as the circulation of foreign currency in domestic transactions or capital flows. However, there are a lot of difficulties in researching the amount of foreign currency in the public because information about this is not accurate or does not even exist.
In general, the most common index used to evaluate the dollarization level is deposit dollarization. Besides, credit dollarization and cash dollarization are also used to analyze this phenomenon. Deposit Dollarization There are two main ways to measure Deposit Dollarization as the following: The most common indicator is the percentage of foreign currency deposits (FCD) in the domestic banking system in the board money (M2). M2 includes cash in circulation, cash deposits, term deposits and foreign currency deposits.
According to criteria of International Monetary Fund, an 8 DOLLARIZATION IN VIETNAM economy is considered to be highly dollarized if this proportion of the country is no less than 30%.