The State Bank of Vietnam continues allowing credit organisations to decide on their hard currency loans to exporters and petroleum dealers throughout 2015, as part of its support measures to achieve the 2015 economic growth of 6.2 percent set by the National Assembly.

SBV Vice Governor Nguyen Thi Hong told the media on December 18 that short-term loans in hard currency will help businesses save borrowing cost in comparison with loans in Vietnamese dong while credit institutions will find it easier to fulfill their credit growth target since hard currency credit is one of the key drivers of the growth.

Currently, foreign currency loans of exporters and petroleum dealers account for a meager 6 percent of the total outstanding debt so that the foreign exchange market is less prone to volatility, Hong added.

Outstanding debt held by the export and oil & gas sectors makes up about 30 percent of the banking system’s total foreign currency debt. As of the late September, the outstanding foreign currency debt expanded over 20.77 percent, five times higher than that in Vietnamese dong.

In previously banks were allowed to consider lending foreign currency to those in need of short-term, mid-term and long-term loans for payment for foreign partners, including fuel traders, and overseas direct investment.-VNA