Trang Chủ
This view was shared by analysts and representatives of banks in the context that many businesses still need capital but hesitate to take out loans for thinking that interest rates will continue to drop.
“We think that interest rates are arriving at the bottom and banks have become more aggressive in giving out loans. Many banks told us they had been asked to boost lending, so it is forecast that credit will grow well in the coming months,” said a report of HCM City Securities Corporation (HSC).
The central bank governor has recently said interest rates would not be slashed further and the deposit rate ceiling of 15% would be kept unchanged in the next 12 months.
The latest figures show that credit growth is inching up. Nguyen Xuan Dung, corporate client manager at Vietnam International Bank (VIB), told the Daily that ten days after the launch of the 1.5-trillion dong credit package with a lending rate of 12% per year for the HCM City-based small and medium-sized enterprises, nearly 100 billion dong worth of loans had been disbursed.
This program is carried out from July 10 to December 31, with a minimum rate of 12% a year and the maximum rate not exceeding 14%. VIB focuses on disbursing capital for businesses active in the areas of import, export, and manufacturing and processing.
According to local media, credit in HCM City picked up 0.5% in July against June and 3% year-on-year, while in Hanoi credit has risen 2.65% from the previous month.
Analysts at Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) said dong interest rates in the inter-bank market remained low, around 4.5-5.5% for terms from overnight to one week, 5.5% for 2-3 week terms, and 6-6.5% for one-month terms. Short-term loans of less than one month made up 90% of the transaction volume.
Money supply remains plentiful while there has not been any significant change in demand.
It is expected that the HCM City government will hold more dialogue with banks and businesses tomorrow in order to seek ways to bring choked off capital at banks into the economy. There have been several meetings like this over the past quarter.
