Prices drop thanks to policy, lower exchange rate

Photo: Tuoi Tre

TUOI TRE

Prices have been dropping across the board as the government’s stabilization policy has set in and the US dollar-dong exchange rate is going down.

Co.op Mart, Vietnam’s leading retailer, said many powdered milk firms have reduced their prices by 3 to 5 percent while others have been maintaining the same prices but increasing product weights for the past two weeks.

Vietnam’s largest diary producer Vinamilk said it will increase the weight per box of its Dielac Alpha powdered milk by 15 percent without changing the price as of July 1.

This will help consumers save VND10,000 on each box, Vinamilk said.

Essence wash liquid producers are also giving consumers an extra 500ml on every two-liter bottle.

Prices of imported confectionary products have also gone down by 2 to 3 percent while cosmetics producers opt to offer customers gifts as discounts.

Nguyen Phuong Thao, director of Maximark Cong Hoa in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh District, said many producers working with her supermarket have also announced their plans to reduce prices.

Besides providing consumers with direct discounts, many producers are now working with supermarkets to launch promotional programs, hoping to increase summer sales by up to 15 percent.

Big C said it will kick off its biggest sales of this year during the summer with discounts of up to 50 percent on over 4,000 products.

As input costs for poultry farming have recently gone down by 7 percent, and demand is low, the HCMC Department of Finance has also asked producers to reduce poultry meat prices by VND2,000-7,000 per kg as part of its price stabilization campaign.

After poultry meat prices soared by VND20,000 per kg in the first six months of this year, many market goers said the price reduction is making things easier for them.

According to the management board of Tan Xuan Market in Hoc Mon District, fruits and vegetables have also been priced down as there is a large supply of these products everyday.

Many expensive products like spinaches, cabbages and carrots at this market have also fallen by 20 to 40 percent per kg.

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Gold association calls for loosening policy

TUOI TRE

The Vietnam Gold Traders Association has urged the central bank to ease some of the proposed regulations in its draft decree on the operation of the gold jewelry business.

The State Bank of Vietnam’s draft decree stipulates that individuals and organizations must set up a business and obtain five different licenses and certificates to be able to produce and trade jewelry.

The five are business license, production condition certificate, business condition certificate, license for exporting gold jewelry, and license for importing gold.

The Gold Traders Association said this entailed so much paperwork that it went against the government’s order to simplify administrative procedures.

Besides, the demands were stringent considering producing and trading gold jewelry did not have any negative effect on monetary policies.

In fact, if exports were encouraged, it would help narrow the trade deficit and curb inflation.

It also called for two different sets of regulations, one for outsourcing production of jewelry parts to households and the other for the final production, making the former more flexible.

There are tens of thousands households that process jewelry parts for large firms without ever producing or trading jewelry themselves.

The association suggested scrapping the regulation requiring jewelry firms to get a business license from the SBV since gold was a normal consumption item which was not subject to restrictions under the Law on Enterprises or the Ordinance on Foreign Exchange.
The licensing should be managed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, it added.

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