Banks lend $19 billion under government subsidy program

Vietnamese banks lent VND338.4 trillion (US$19 billion) this year under the government’s loan-subsidy program to bolster slowing economic growth.

The nation is offering about VND17 trillion ($1 billion) in subsidies to encourage banks to lend at preferential interest rates. The government values its economic stimulus measures at about $8 billion, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said at an April conference in Hong Kong.

State-owned banks lent VND243.5 trillion and commercial banks extended VND76 trillion, according to a statement on the central bank’s website Friday.

Vietnam’s gross domestic product expanded 3.1 percent in the first quarter, the slowest since at least 1991.

thanhnien, bloomberg

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