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Vietnam raises 2009 credit growth target to 30 percent
Vietnam has approved a plan to raise the targeted cap on annual credit growth this year to 30 percent, from an initial projection by the central bank of 21 to 23 percent, Governor Nguyen Van Giau said Wednesday.
The government had decided to allow relatively high credit growth this year to support the economy, he told reporters.
“June loans will still rise at a high rate of 3 percent,” Giau said, adding that this would bring first half credit growth to 17 percent. Through May, credit in Vietnam expanded 14 percent growth from the end of December.
Giau also said bad debt was under control at 2.62 percent of the total loans as of the end of April, from 2.17 percent at the start of the year, while data for the end of May were not available yet.
“There’s no problem with bad debt,” Giau said.
As part of the government’s economic stimulus measures, it has been subsidizing 4 percentage points worth of interest on select business loans, and so far about US$19 billion has been lent under that scheme between February and now.
Giau said loans to the property sector including mortgages at the end of May rose 9 percent so far this year to VND151 trillion.
So far this year, remittances from abroad totaled US$2.73 billion, which, coupled with foreign direct investment inflows, would give Vietnam sufficient dollar supply, Giau said.
But he warned that remittances this year may be 20 percent lower than last year, at $5.6-5.7 billion.
The government has approved a plan to keep the trade deficit at 20 percent of the annual exports, which will significantly help control the domestic supply of foreign exchange, he added.
thanhnien, Reuters
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