Vietnamese Business association calls for lending interest rate cut

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-09-25 14:12

HANOI -- The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has called on Vietnamese banks to lower lending interest rates to ease a critical capital shortage facing the business sector, The Youths reported on Thursday.

With the average interest rate of commercial banks at 21 percent, 73 percent of the country's enterprises say they don't have enough fund to maintain and expand their business, a VCCI survey found.

VCCI said the demand for business loans was relatively high in the second half of the year, with 90.2 percent of Vietnam's private companies, 81.5 percent of State-owned companies and 57.7 percent of foreign companies saying they needed more bank loans.

According to VCCI, lower interest rates would assist the government's efforts to stabilize the economy, maintain social welfare and support business.

Vietnam has adopted a tightened monetary policy since the second quarter of this year to rein in high inflation and stabilize the economy. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said recently that the country will continue with the tightened monetary policy but in a more flexible way to ensure the liquidity of the economy.