State Bank slashes key interbank interest rates

SBV cuts the ceiling interest rates by 1%, capping the rate at 12% percent per annum.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on April 10 cut the ceiling interestrates for saving deposit of one-month and longer terms by 1 percent,capping the rate at 12 percent per annum effective from April 11.

The cap on interest rates for non-term deposits in Vietnamese dong will fall to 4 percent from the existing 5 percent.

On the same day, SBV Governor Nguyen Van Binh also signed Decision693/QD-NHNN regarding re-financing, discounts and overnight interestrates on the inter-bank market.

The re-financinginterest rate has been set at 13 percent per year, the discount interestrate at 11 percent and overnight interest at 14 percent.

At the end of last week, Vietinbank lowered its annual lending interest rate from 15 percent to 14 percent.

The new rate will apply to the export, agricultural and ruraldevelopment sectors, as well as support industries and small- andmedium-sized enterprises.

An interest rate of 12percent per year will also be applied to traders wishing to purchaserice from the 2011-12 winter-spring harvest to hold in reserve,Vietinbank said.

Meanwhile, the Cuu Long ( Mekong )Delta Housing Development Bank said it had earmarked reserves of 3trillion VND (142 million USD) to lend to domestic producers at 1percent to 2 percent below its annual market rate.

Eximbank has also set aside 1 trillion VND (44 million USD) forpreferential loans over a six-month period for family-run businessesthat had been in operation for at least three years.

This will be the third reduction in lending interest rates by domesticbanks since March 12 to help firms more easily access credit.

A meeting between the SBV and 12 major commercial banks (G12) inHanoi last week heard that the lending proportion out of totaldeposits in the first two months of the year reduced to 96.4 percentfrom 116 percent in the fourth quarter last year, which indicatedimproved liquidity.

However, commercial banks said they are unable to lend more due to a cap on their credit growth.-VNA

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