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Bonds gain most in a week on slump; dong little changed
Bonds advanced the most in a week after Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the government would focus on countering an economic slowdown. The dong was little changed.
The economy expanded last year at the slowest pace since 1999 and the government this week said the trade deficit may widen to a record US$19.2 billion this year as the global slump crimps demand for the country’s garments and coffee.
The government may spend $972 million to support small - and medium-sized companies, Dung said last week.
“Almost every product and service has been hurt and our export markets were curtailed due to the global meltdown,” Dung said in a statement posted on the government’s website.
The yield on the benchmark five-year note dropped 23 basis points, the most since December 24, to 9.77 percent.
The government has prioritized growth over inflation, Dung said. “To cope with a deepening economic expansion is more difficult and complicated than taming inflation,” he said.
The year-on-year inflation rate in April reached 21.4 percent, the highest since at least 1992. Consumer prices slowed in December for a fourth month to the lowest level since March, the General Statistics Office said last week.
Bloomberg
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