Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has said that the Vietnamese government has no need to ask for loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the ASEAN Plus Three to resolve internal economic issues given the country’s positive macro economic situation, payment balance, foreign currency reserve and market confidence at present.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made the affirmation while answering Vietnam News Agency’s query regarding Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yodhoyono’s remarks on the the sidelines of the 20 APEC Summit held recently in Vladivostok, Russia.

President Yodhoyono was quoted as saying that “Indonesia and other fellow ASEAN members will be ready to help Vietnam through the crisis without the country having a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.”

PM Dung said under the agreement on the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), which Vietnam is an active member, all member countries have the right to approach the loan when they need urgent assistance to address short-term payment balance and foreign currency liquidity in order to stabilise the macro economy and monetary market.

The government leader said since early 2012, the Vietnamese macro economy has seen positive changes. The eight-month period inflation rate was kept at 2.86 percent and the annual rate is expected at about 6 percent.

The current account balance surplus exceeded 6 billion USD, while the overall balance of payments surplus was about 8 billion USD, PM Dung said, adding that the state foreign currency reserves doubled the level of the beginning of the year together with stable foreign exchange market and exchange rate.

In addition, the country’s exports increased by nearly 20 percent while trade deficit accounted for nearly 1 percent of the total export-import value. GDP growth rate of the following quarter was higher than the previous one and is estimated to reach 5.5 percent for the whole year.

Restructuring the economy in general and the banking sector in particular has reached preliminarily positive results, the government leader said.

He affirmed that these achievements and the government’s orientation of macro economic policy have been highly valued by the market and international community.

The Vietnamese government continues to maintain the close relationship, within the cooperation framework with the IMF and the ASEAN Plus Three, including the regular macro economic supervision activities, the PM added.-VNA