On September 25, banks took the first steps to slash lending interest rates as the central bank decided to keep the basic interest rate at 14% per annum and raise interest rates on compulsory reserves from 3.6% to 5%. Duong Thu Huong, Secretary General of the Vietnam Banking Association, talks about lending interest rates in the time to come.

Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Van Giau talks about the main points of the monetary policies the bank will pursue in the time to come.

Vietnam is seen as the most attractive new emerging market, topping a list of 10 tomorrow’s high growth markets, said a United Kingdom Trade & Investment (UKTI)’s report.

The two-day international forum, which focuses this year on ways to sustain Viet Nam’s growth, is organised by the Ministry of Planning and Investment in co-ordination with Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and the Asia News Network, an organisation grouping 19 Asian newspapers.

The State Bank of Viet Nam started purchasing foreign currency and yesterday depreciated the dong by 0.03 per cent against last Friday, bringing the US dollar exchange rate to VND16,514.

When asked what Vietnam should do in the event of a global economic recession triggered by the US financial crisis, Dr Vo Tri Thanh, Director of the Department for International Integration Studies under the Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM), said that Vietnam needs to stabilise the macroeconomy and keep confident.

The government of Vietnam on September 3 and 4 held a regular meeting, reaffirming that Vietnam will likely maintain the GDP growth rate at 6.7 per cent-7 per cent and curb inflation to 25 per cent this year.

Vietnam is forecast to attract a total foreign direct investment capital of some US$55 billion-US$60 billion this year, tripling the figure of 2007, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) said.

During an online interview on the Government’s website, central bank Governor Nguyen Van Giau re-affirmed the capability of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to effectively stabilise the foreign exchange (FX) market whenever the market showed an unbalanced supply-demand ratio due to sentiment and speculation.

The trade deficit has been decreasing considerably for the last two months as a result of measures to reduce consumption, tighten public expenses and control foreign currencies for import. However, curbing the trade gap at below $20bil in 2008 remains a big challenge.