Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Van Thang made the request at a monetary policy meeting held on the evening of October 16.
The meeting was held to implement directions from the General Secretary and the President, as well as resolutions and conclusions of the Central Committee, especially Conclusion No. 106 issued on October 15. The discussion focused on reducing lending rates to support businesses and residents and promote economic growth.
According to Nguyen Van Thang, lending rates remain high. This affects the cost of capital, production and business activity, and access to credit for businesses and residents. Bad debt and risks in banking operations also continue to involve complex factors.
He asked the State Bank to take measures to stabilize lending rates and reduce them. The measures should be implemented urgently, effectively and in practice, with lending rates cut by 1.5–2% for production, businesses and priority sectors to support residents and enterprises.
At the same time, bad debt must be closely controlled, the safety of the banking system ensured, and banks taking part in the social housing lending program provided with refinancing at reasonable rates.
Inspections, checks and supervision should also be strengthened to ensure compliance with laws and directions from the State Bank of Vietnam on interest rates. Credit institutions that fail to follow directions on stabilizing lending rates and reducing them, or engage in unhealthy rate competition, must be identified promptly, corrected and strictly dealt with within the authorities’ powers.
The Governor of the State Bank must personally direct the implementation of measures to stabilize and reduce lending rates, ensure their effectiveness and maintain liquidity for commercial banks.
The authorities must also address bad debt effectively and promptly, limit new bad debt, closely control credit quality, strengthen inspections and supervision of lending, and control credit risks and bad debt in high-risk sectors, especially real estate.
Recently, higher deposit rates have kept lending rates elevated. This has created difficulties for many production and business sectors as well as the real estate market. At the end of September, the average lending rate had risen to 10.7% after banks raised deposit rates, creating a chain reaction.
Sources: Thanh Niên
