Ho Chi Minh City’s credit growth amounted to some 2.4 quadrillion VND (104 billion USD) as of the end of 2020, making up nearly 27 percent of the country’s total. (Photo: VNA) The figure represented a year-on-year increase of just 9 percent, lower than the national average of 12.13 percent.
The city posted growth of 1.39 percent in gross regional domestic product (GRDP) from 2019, equal to half of Vietnam’s GDP growth of 2.91 percent.
Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’s HCM City Branch, Nguyen Hoang Minh, explained that capital attraction by local businesses was down compared to the previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic being brought under control contributed to the country’s economic recovery and improvement in credit growth by the year-end, he noted, adding that the banking sector provided sufficient capital for local businesses to operate.
When COVID-19 broke out, the SBV and commercial banks in HCM City cut interest rates and promptly implemented Circular No. 01 on supporting affected businesses through debt restructuring and exemptions on interest payments and service charges, among others.
To enhance businesses’ access to capital, the HCM City branch of the central bank has joined hands with the Department of Industry and Trade and the HCM City Union of Business Associations (HUBA) to promote a programme connecting banks with enterprises and businesses, enabling the latter to obtain loans at low interest rates.
At a recent press conference on the tasks for the banking sector this year, SBV Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu affirmed that support for enterprises to surmount the difficulties posed by COVID-19 is among the most important tasks this year, given the pandemic is still wreaking havoc on many countries worldwide./.
