Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – TheState Bank of Vietnam (SBV) aims to again curb the inflation below 4 percentand sustain the monetary market this year, SBV Governor Le Minh Hung told a teleconferenceof the banking sector in Hanoi on January 2.
The event was held in the presence of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to map out tasks for the banking sector in 2020.
The central bank willcontinue to restructure financial institutions from 2021 – 2025 to bring the the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio down to below 2 percent, Hung said.
He highlighted what thebanking sector has achieved in 2019, saying the SBV pursued a flexible monetarypolicy to stabilize the monetary and foreign currencymarket and keep inflation below the limit set by the National Assembly.
The average inflation ratewas 2.79 percent last year, the lowest over the past three years and below the4-percent limit, while the core inflation was 2.01 percent, the governor said.
Last September, the SBV cutseveral key interest rates by 0.25 percent, the first since2017.
Two months later, the bankmade the second cut with non-term deposit annual interest rate slashed by 0.2percent and under-6-month deposit by 0.5 percent. For borrowers in prioritysectors, the ceiling interest rate was reduced by 0.5 percent.
Credit grew 13.7 percent in2019, largely funneled into businesses and priority sectors. Credit forhigh-risk areas has been strictly controlled.
At the end of 2019, credit foragriculture and rural development expanded 11 percent from a year earlier,accounting for about 25 percent of the total outstanding loans, while that forsmall- and medium-sized enterprises and for high-tech firms increased 16percent and 15 percent, respectively.
The NPL ratio was 1.89percent last year, Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu said. Between 2012 and 2019,over 1.06 quadrillion VND (45.7 billion USD) of bad debts across financialinstitutions have been cleaned, he added.
In 2019, Vietnam ranked 25out of 190 economies in the world in credit access index and second in ASEANafter Brunei.
Through bank-business connectprogrammes, nearly 600 trillion VND in loans have been provided for about 125,000 companies.
Speaking at the event, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuongurged the SBV to further foster the link between the banking and agriculturesectors towards sustainability. He asked the central bank to work with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to developagricultural startup and experiment models and drasticallycontrol bad debts.
Minister of Information andCommunications Nguyen Manh Hung, meanwhile, urged the SBV to pay greater heedto promoting e-payment markets, saying the two sides should closely coordinateto soon pilot the Mobile Money service in Vietnam this year.
The event was held in the presence of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to map out tasks for the banking sector in 2020.
The central bank willcontinue to restructure financial institutions from 2021 – 2025 to bring the the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio down to below 2 percent, Hung said.
He highlighted what thebanking sector has achieved in 2019, saying the SBV pursued a flexible monetarypolicy to stabilize the monetary and foreign currencymarket and keep inflation below the limit set by the National Assembly.
The average inflation ratewas 2.79 percent last year, the lowest over the past three years and below the4-percent limit, while the core inflation was 2.01 percent, the governor said.
Last September, the SBV cutseveral key interest rates by 0.25 percent, the first since2017.
Two months later, the bankmade the second cut with non-term deposit annual interest rate slashed by 0.2percent and under-6-month deposit by 0.5 percent. For borrowers in prioritysectors, the ceiling interest rate was reduced by 0.5 percent.
Credit grew 13.7 percent in2019, largely funneled into businesses and priority sectors. Credit forhigh-risk areas has been strictly controlled.
At the end of 2019, credit foragriculture and rural development expanded 11 percent from a year earlier,accounting for about 25 percent of the total outstanding loans, while that forsmall- and medium-sized enterprises and for high-tech firms increased 16percent and 15 percent, respectively.
The NPL ratio was 1.89percent last year, Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu said. Between 2012 and 2019,over 1.06 quadrillion VND (45.7 billion USD) of bad debts across financialinstitutions have been cleaned, he added.
In 2019, Vietnam ranked 25out of 190 economies in the world in credit access index and second in ASEANafter Brunei.
Through bank-business connectprogrammes, nearly 600 trillion VND in loans have been provided for about 125,000 companies.
Speaking at the event, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuongurged the SBV to further foster the link between the banking and agriculturesectors towards sustainability. He asked the central bank to work with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to developagricultural startup and experiment models and drasticallycontrol bad debts.
Minister of Information andCommunications Nguyen Manh Hung, meanwhile, urged the SBV to pay greater heedto promoting e-payment markets, saying the two sides should closely coordinateto soon pilot the Mobile Money service in Vietnam this year.
The serviceallows users to transfer and receive money as well as make payments throughmobile accounts for services such as health, education, finance, jobs andsocial welfare.
Thescheme permits telecommunications firms to pilot a mobile money service notlinked to consumers’ bank accounts./.
VNA
