Dong dinged

There's been another big currency move out of Vietnam.

Hanoi's communist government today devalued the dong by 8.5 percent, a significant move aimed at righting the country's export-heavy economy. The scale of the move is raising new fears about the threat of inflation, which is already running at 12 percent in Vietnam.

“Monetary policy will need to focus more decisively on containing inflation, and fiscal policy will need to be put on a clearer consolidation path to contain public debt,” Ben Bingham, resident representative for the International Monetary Fund in Vietnam said in the Financial Times.

It's the third such move in a year for Vietnam.

The question now: how will a weaker dong affect other countries in the region (I'm talking to you, Thailand) that compete with Vietnamese exports?