Vietnam Banks Stop Lending by Late-2009
Commercial banks in Vietnam have stopped lending since early December because of their capital shortage and high credit growths.
Many of them have been racing to withdraw debts instead of continuing lending because they had no much capital and reached the 2009 lending growth target already.
Deputy General Director of Sacombank (STB) Ho Xuan Nghiem was quoted as saying that the HCM City-based bank only provided loans to the customers using its services and having good performance.
Sacombank has reached the whole-year credit growth target of 57%, Nghiem said, adding that the bank will consider re-lending by early 2010 after its capital source pressure is over.
As demand for capital and cash often surge at the year-end, the State Bank of Vietnam, the country’s central bank, is proposed to pump extra money into the economy through banks.
However, the central bank in early Nov signaled that it will tighten the money sources to curb credit growth to tame inflation.
Prof Dr Tran Hoang Ngan, member of the National Advisory Council on Monetary and Financial Policies suggested that the central bank should put the credit growth in flexible figures instead of the current fixed figure.
Ngan also warned that tightened monetary policies may cause a serious shortage of capital, leading to a slow economic growth.
By the end of November, total loans for the domestic economy grew 36% from end-2008 and are forecast to hit 39% by the year-end, surpassing 9% of the allowed limit for 2009. (Youth)
Vietnamese
