Vietnam to issue new notes, coins starting Dec. 17

Vietnam to issue new notes, coins starting Dec. 17

Associated Press
Hanoi, Vietnam

Vietnam will issue two new notes and three new coins from Dec.
17, including its highest ever denomination note worth 500,000
dong (US$32), Central Bank Governor Le Duc Thuy said on Thursday.

The new notes will have a face value of 500,000 dong and
50,000 dong, while the coins will have face values of 5,000 dong,
1,000 dong and 200 dong. Currently, the country's largest
denomination note is worth 100,000 dong.

The last time Vietnam issued coins was in the early 1980s,
Thuy said.

The country experienced a period of three-digit inflation
during that decade thanks to a disastrous policy of collectivized
farming and economic controls. Subsequently all coins in
circulation became worthless and were phased out. The new coins
will be the first in two decades.

"We need to issue new currencies to help maintain the
stability of Vietnam's monetary system, because the new
currencies ... will have characteristics which are very difficult
to counterfeit," Thuy said. "Counterfeiting has become a serious
problem for Vietnam."

He said that the country also needs to issue coins because the
country will increasingly have more vending machines for public
convenience.

Thuy predicts Vietnam's inflation for this year will be about
3 percent - much lower than initially targeted. In the first 11
months of this year, the inflation rate was only 2.2 percent.