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.