Vietnam PM Decides to Stop Loans for Luxury Goods Imports till end-2009
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s proposal to stop lending for imports of luxury goods from now to end-2009 to narrow the country’s rising trade deficit in recent months.
Under the PM’s decision, commercial banks were requested to stop providing credits for businesses to import luxury commodities such as cars, mobile phones, cosmetics and wines to limit trade gap this year.
The move is aimed at curbing the country’s trade deficit at below 20% of total export value this year.
However, the banks were instructed to prioritize loans for local firms to import 13 essential goods like petroleum products, fertilizers and medicines.
In an effort to curb trade gap this year, the MoIT will work with ministries and agencies to apply administrative measures to lengthen customs declaration duration to force local businesses to thoroughly consider the imports of non-essential goods this month.
Vietnam incurred US$10.417 billion trade gap in Jan-Nov, accounting for 20.3% of the country’s total export value.
The MoIT forecast Vietnam’s trade deficit will stand between US$11.5 billion and US$12.5 billion this year, down from US$17.516 billion in 2008. (Trade & Industry)
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