Businesses in the capital can access loans with interest rates of 7–8 percent per year under a programme to remove difficulties for businesses.

The programme, initiated by the Hanoi People's Committee, connects banks and businesses in the capital and is aimed to have commercial banks support credit for businesses at reasonable interest rates.

Under the programme, interest rates for short-term loans will be 7–8 percent compared with the market average rate of 9–10 percent. The rates for medium- and long-term loans will be 9–10.5 percent compared with the market average rate of 10.5–12 percent.

The programme gives priority to high-tech and supporting industries as well as small- and medium-sized firms.

According to the Hanoi Statistics Office, credit in the capital in the first 5 months this year increased by 0.3 percent against the same period last year while deposits rose 2.4 percent.

Outstanding loans in May alone were estimated at nearly 948 trillion VND (44 billion USD), up 0.8 percent from last month and up 0.3 percent from December 2013. Additionally, short-term loans increased by 0.6 percent from last month and 1.4 percent from December 2013, while medium- to long-term loans increased by 1.2 percent from last month and 3.9 percent from December 2013.

However, the capital's credit growth rate was much slower than that of the whole banking industry. Data from the State Bank of Vietnam revealed that credit growth in the system at the end of April had reached 1 percent.

Total deposits of Hanoi-based credit institutions in May reached 1,071 trillion VND (49.81 billion USD), up 1 percent from last month and 2.4 percent from December 2013.-VNA