Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words trade+vietnam. 3 news.

VIETNAM widened the daily trading band for the dong, giving the central bank more scope to slow inflation by allowing the currency to strengthen. The dong can now trade 0.75 percent either side of a rate set by State Bank of Vietnam each day, compared with 0.5 percent previously, according to Dao Xuan Tuan, head of foreign-exchange management at the bank's currency department. Vietnam has allowed the currency to strengthen by 1.3 percent since August 20 as consumer-price inflation accelerated to a 10 percent annual pace in November, the fastest in more than three years. The dong is little changed in the year, following an 11-year run of depreciation designed to make the nation's exports more competitive. Vietnam faces "a dilemma with trade deficits growing and inflation picking up," said Masashi Kurabe, head of the foreign-exchange sales & trading group in Hong Kong at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, part of Japan's largest lender. "The country may be aiming to

Foreign investment pledges in Vietnam have surged by nearly 70 percent so far this year, thanks to the country's admission to the World Trade Organization, an official said Monday.

Vietnam has allowed commercial banks to trade US dollars more freely against the Vietnamese dong, given a rising dollar inflow, widening the trading band to plus or minus 0.75% from 0.5%