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 just9 percent, lower than the national average of 12.13 percent.
The city posted growth of 1.39 percent in grossregional domestic product (GRDP) from 2019, equal to half of Vietnam’s GDPgrowth of 2.91 percent.
Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’sHCM City Branch, Nguyen Hoang Minh, explained that capital attraction by localbusinesses was down compared to the previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic being brought under control contributedto 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 localbusinesses to operate.
When COVID-19 broke out, the SBV and commercialbanks in HCM City cut interest rates and promptly implemented Circular No. 01 onsupporting affected businesses through debt restructuring and exemptions on interestpayments and service charges, among others.
To enhance businesses’ access to capital, the HCMCity branch of the central bank has joined hands with the Departmentof Industry and Trade and the HCM City Union of Business Associations (HUBA) topromote a programme connecting banks with enterprises and businesses, enablingthe latter to obtain loans at low interest rates.
At a recent press conference on the tasks for thebanking sector this year, SBV Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu affirmed that supportfor enterprises to surmount the difficulties posed by COVID-19 is among themost important tasks this year, given the pandemic is still wreaking havoc on manycountries worldwide./.
