Banking & Finance

Vietnam could achieve its ambition of becoming a high-income country in 2045 by adapting its development strategy toward higher efficiency, just like Cristiano Ronaldo did with his game at the age of 35.

It would be more efficient if the government could waive and delay tax payments for one to three years, said a senior local economist.

Fitch Solutions’ deficit forecast is wider than the Ministry of Finance’s 5.0-5.1% deficit estimate.

The VN-Index's rally stemmed from strong participation of domestic investors and lower selling pressure from foreign players.

Tax revenue in May suffered a sharp plunge of 36.9% year-on-year to VND58 trillion (US$2.52 billion).

The threshold would now be raised from VND9 million (US$389) per month to VND11 million (US$475).

Transactions via mobile devices recorded a year-on-year surge of 198% in volume and 210% in value last year.

Greater attention should be on the potential impact of the rapid monetary expansion on inflation and the deepening of the fiscal deficit caused by under-performing tax collection.

Japan has been a major donor of official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam, estimated at US$24 billion, or 26.4% of total borrowings of the Vietnamese government.

The regulation on mobile payment will not allow users to recharge from scratch cards but they must conduct deposits and withdrawals from the registered bank account.

The consumer prices, however, increased 4.39% year-on-year in the January- May period, the highest five-month growth rate over the last three years.

As of May 15, budget revenue collection reached VND529.6 trillion (US$22.7 billion), equivalent to 35% of the year's estimate.

More efforts are being made to speed up the economic recovery process while many countries are struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Emerging economies are chasing companies to get more FDI, but companies are chasing Vietnam to move there, said HSBC.

Cash has constituted 11.3% of total means of payment as of December 31, 2019.

Kookmin Bank’s decision to raise its branches’ registered capital in just a short period of time indicates the bank is optimistic about business prospects in Vietnam.

The stable outlook reflects S&P’s expectation that Vietnam's economy will continue to expand rapidly.

The Vietnamese government is committed to preparing all necessary conditions to meet demands of multinationals, stressed Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

With the new threshold in place, set to take effect from January 1, 2020 retrospectively, there would be more than 1 million people whose incomes are not taxable.

Overall, Vietnam is ranked 77 out of 117 countries and territories, up 14 places against 2017.