Vietnam’s central bank will gradually widen the band in which the country’s currency is allowed to trade against the U.S. dollar, Pham Huu Phuong, head of the central bank’s representative office in Ho Chi Minh City, told a state run newspaper on Thursday. The dong is presently allowed to trade against the dollar within a three-percent band around a midpoint rate set daily by the central bank. Vietnam’s exchange rate has experienced a turbulent past few months, due primarily to the global rise of the dollar since the onset of the financial crisis, as nervous investors pulled money out of emerging markets like Vietnam. The dong had been rising against the dollar early in the year due to large inflows of foreign investment. It then dropped sharply in late spring on fears of a currency crisis due to rampant inflation. It ...