HANOI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has told the central bank to take "strong" steps to stabilise the foreign exchange and gold markets, and requested the finance ministry to implement price controls on certain goods.
The calls came as the dong weakened to around 21,500 per dollar on unofficial markets, having fallen nearly 10 percent below the official trading limit of 19,500 as mandated by its trading band, and as forecasts put full-year inflation above 10 percent. The official government target is 8 percent.
The State Bank of Vietnam should "implement in a timely manner strong and effective measures to ensure the control and stability of exchange rates, gold prices and interest rates", Dung said in instructions issued on Tuesday, according to the government's website, www.chinhphu.vn.
The finance ministry, meanwhile, should "resolutely stop the registration of price increases of goods and services subject to price registration if the increases are unreasonable". (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Kim Coghill)