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Rate cut proposed for state-backed export loans
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has recommended lowering the interest rate on state-funded loans to exporters to 3 percent, the Vietnam Economic Times reported.
The rate is equivalent to the rates offered by many commercial banks under a government stimulus program which provides an interest subsidy of 4 percent on companies’ borrowings.
The current rate on state-funded loans is 6.9 percent, adjusted downward recently from last year’s 10.8 percent.
Exports slumped 24 percent last month from a year earlier to US$3.8 billion, the General Statistics Office said.
The ministry also asked the government to allow the Vietnam Development Bank (VDB), the state-run policy-lending institution that provides the loans, to be flexible with the rates, the newspaper report said.
The non-profit VDB, the successor to the Development Assistance Fund, was established in 2006 with a chartered capital of VND5 trillion ($287 million) to fund export activities and public infrastructure projects.
Thanh nien
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