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Foreign reserves disclosure eyed
The State Bank of Viet Nam will work with Government members to discuss the possibility of disclosing national foreign exchange reserves, central bank governor Nguyen Van Giau told the Asian Development Bank's 44th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors in Ha Noi this week.
Although Giau admitted that publishing information regarding a bank's activities was a normal practice in many other countries, disclosing such information in Viet Nam would be a different story.
Such procedures not only involved the State Bank of Viet Nam, but also the Ministry of Industry and Trade as well as the Prime Minister, Giau said.
According to the March 2011 ADB Development Outlook, Viet Nam held low foreign exchange reserves, estimated at around US$12.4 billion (About 1.9 months of the country's import cover) at the end of last year. Other foreign financial institutions estimated that Viet Nam held $24 billion in foreign reserves during 2008.
Responding to concerns regarding the independence of the central bank, Giau affirmed that the SBV was part of the Government, which makes it very different to banks in other countries. According to a State Bank Law from 2010, the SBV still has certain independent powers regarding its monetary management.
Governor Giau said that the central bank would strictly control credit growth during 2011, keeping figures below 20 per cent to help tackle soaring inflation.
Credit growth rose in the first quarter of this year to above 5 per cent from the end of 2010. Current outstanding loans equal 1.2 times the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
GDP in Q1 of this year grew by 5.43 per cent (worth VND441.707 trillion or $21.03 billion) from 7.34 per cent in the last quarter of 2010, according to the General Statistics Office.
During 2010, credit growth reached 27.65 per cent, overshooting the target of 25 per cent and pushing outstanding loans to 140 per cent of the GDP.
Viet Nam's GDP reached $104.6 billion during 2010.
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