The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) targets credit growth at 14% in 2019, unchanged from the five-year low rate recorded in 2018, the government portal reported, citing Nguyen Thi Hong, an SBV deputy governor.
SBV's Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong at the press conference. Source: VGP.
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Hong said the SBV would take a cautious approach on supporting credit growth, which should be in close relation with the inflation rate.
Pham Thanh Ha, head of the SBV’s Monetary Policy Department, informed as of March 25, Vietnam’s credit growth reached 2.28% against the end of 2018.
Meanwhile, the lending rates remained stable, averaging 6 - 9% per year in short term, and 9 - 11% per year in mid- and long-term. Particularly, some credit institutions have reduced short-term lending rates by 0.5 percentage points per annum for customers with good credit ratings and operating in priority fields.
The SBV’s Deputy Director General of Credit Department Tran Van Tan informed outstanding loans in the industrial sector increased by 2.57% year-on-year and made up 20% of the total. Of which, the manufacturing and processing climbed 2.79% year-on-year and accounted for 15.35%.
Additionally, outstanding loans in the construction sector increased by 1.08% and made up 9.63% of the total, commercial and services sector up 1.97% and 61.21% of the credit, agriculture, fishery and forestry up 1.01% and 9.17% of the total.
Nghiem Thanh Son, deputy director of the SBV’s Payment Department, said payment activities in Vietnam have transformed significantly to meet new requirements of the economy and reflect changes in payment technologies.
In 2018, the number of domestic payment transactions via bank cards reached 230.7 million, up 19.02% year-on-year with combined value of VND592 trillion (US$25.45 billion), while the number of financial transactions via internet stood at 255.6 million worth VND16,200 trillion (US$696.58 billion), up 22.6% and 19.5%, respectively; the number of transactions via mobile phones was 185.1 million worth VND1,859.9 trillion (US$79.95 billion), up 41.4% and 169.5%, respectively.
The SBV’s Deputy Governor Hong said the banking restructuring process has progressed well on track, leading to the bad debt ratio of below 2% in the whole banking system.
As of January 31, the total value of bad debt resolved on the basis of Resolution No.42, which provides special pilot treatment of bad debts at credit institutions, was estimated at VND204.4 trillion (US$8.78 trillion), accounting for over 40.1% of total bad debts.
