Banking credit up in first quarter

Banking credit grew by 1.5 percent in the first quarter, the State Bank of Vietnam has reported.
Banking credit grew by 1.5 percent in the first quarter, the State Bank of Vietnam has reported.

Analystssaid the market was rather surprised at this high growth since bankshad always seen negative credit growth in the first quarter since 2011.

But they called it a reasonable outcome since the entire economy had seen a significant recovery.

Vu Dinh Anh, a senior economist, said the growth was a good sign especially since the economy still relied on credit.

Domesticfirms seem to have regained confidence, with the number of companiesestablished increasing during the quarter and many others also hikingtheir chartered capital.

Dinh Duc Quang, deputy director oflender OCB, told Dau Tu Chung Khoan magazine that the credit growth wasdue to real demand for capital and so sustainable. He contrasted thatwith similar strong growth in the final part of the year, which washowever owed to banks looking for a way to increase lending to achievetheir targets rather than demand.

Vo Tri Thanh, Deputy Directorof the Central Institute of Economic Management, said "Companies willlikely have greater opportunity to do business because of reasons likehigh consumer demand and GDP growth.

"In the last four yearsconsumer growth stood at only around 5 percent. But [it] reached 9percent in the first quarter of this year, while the country's grossdomestic product jumped by 6.03 percent."

Acknowledging the strong revival in the economy, many banks had managed to expand their credit activities, analysts said.

TheVietnam International Bank, which has been set a mere 11 percent growthtarget by the SBV – this would see its outstanding loans increase to42.38 trillion VND (1.97 million USD) – plans however to achieve 27percent growth to 48.53 trillion VND (22.57 million USD) based on itscapacity.

Nguyen Duc Huong, vice president of Lien VietPostBank,said the bank encouraged its employees to identify feasible projects toinvest in to achieve the year's credit growth target of 13 percent.

Some others like VietinBank, VCB, BIDV, and MBB have targeted credit growth of 16-17 percent.-VNA

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