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Inflation in Laos dropped to 25.88% year-on-year in August from 27.8% in July, according to the Lao Statistics Bureau.

International experts shared experience in public debt management and gave recommendations to Vietnam at a consultation workshop in Hanoi on August 17.

Legislators are scheduled to continue discussing the supplementary assessment of the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and State budget in 2022 as well as the performance of the socio-economic development plan and State budget in the first months of 2023 as part of the 15th National Assembly (NA)’s fifth session on June 1.

International experience in public debt management was shared with Vietnam at a workshop held in Hanoi on August 23.

Vietnam’s public debt in the 2017-2021 period decreased dramatically from 61.4% of its GDP to 43.1%, according to the latest information released by the Ministry of Finance.

Vietnam is targeting to control public debt below 60 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030 to ensure debt safety and national financial security.

Lao Finance Minister Bounchom Oubonpaseuth has assured National Assembly (NA) members that public debt is still manageable, despite the total amount remaining considerable, Vientiane Times reported.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai has signed a decision approving the public debt strategy until 2030, which sets a target of keeping it at under 60 percent of the GDP and Government debts not exceeding 50 percent of the GDP in 2030.

The Public Debt Management Office of Thailand reported that as of December 30, 2021, the country’s public debt stood at 9.64 trillion THB (about 293 billion USD) or 59.57 percent of the national GDP.

The building of economic recovery solutions will depend on the development of COVID-19, the progress of vaccination and the capacity of supplying COVID-19 treatment medicine when the country switches to the new normal situation, said Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung.

The Ministry of Finance of Malaysia submitted the Bill of Interim Financial Measures, which proposed to raise the public debt ceiling from the current 60 to 65 percent of GDP, to the National Assembly on September 28.

More than 206 trillion VND (9 billion USD) worth of Government bonds has been raised for the State budget annually. This accounts for almost 10 percent of total investment in society in 2020 and 28.3 percent of the investment by the State sector last year.

Thailand has increased the ceiling of its public debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio to 70 percent from 60 percent, allowing the government to raise more funds to help a struggling economy.

Laos will use revenue earned from potential mining operations, restructured state enterprises and from other as yet untapped sources to pay public debts amounting to almost 14 billion USD.

Malaysian Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said on July 29 the country’s debt level was already at 56.8 percent of GDP at the end of June.

The financial sector expects to collect over 1.343 quadrillion VND (58.4 billion USD) for the State budget in 2021, equivalent to 15.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), said the Ministry of Finance.

More than 1.48 quadrillion VND (64.2 billion USD) was collected for the State budget in 2020, equivalent to 98 percent of the target, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Thailand’s cabinet on December 22 approved the inflation target range of 1-3 percent for 2021 as set by the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Thailand’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) held a seminar with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on November 19 to discuss risk management of re-lending foreign loans and government guarantees.

The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to weigh on socio-economic development and State budget in 2021 and the years that follow, Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung said.