SBV Governor Downplays Dollar Fevers; Monetary Market Still Stable

Nguyen Van Giau, governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, has downplayed dollar fevers after greenbacks jumped to more than VND17,000/US$1 recently at the grey market, attributed them to speculations and ensured that monetary market is at stable and secure levels, the Communist Party of Vietnam-run Nhan Dan newspaper said.

  

Giau also touched a burning issue-the outstanding loans for realty projects-attributed them to speculation psychology which ballooned the realty market in late 2007 and early 2008. Currently, outstanding loans banks lent to realty developers were VND115 trillion, accounting for 9.15 per cent of the total lent by the banking system.

 

Ho Chi Minh City-based banks reported VND61 trillion loans for realty sector as of Oct of the year, representing 15 per cent of banks' total in the city.

 

SBV recently cut benchmark rates to 12 per cent per annum and slash compulsory bank reserves by 1 per cent for dong deposits and 2 per cent for hard currency deposits. The bank widened the trading band of dong against dollar to minus and plus 3 per cent from 2 per cent to boost exports growth.

The bank recently said Vietnam’s forex reserves are estimated at more than US$22 billion so far this year.

 

Meanwhile, Standard & Poor's warned in its statement that Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam are the Asian countries most at risk of a credit-rating downgrade as the global economy heads into a recession and funds become scarcer. (The People)