Vietnam's central bank urges commercial banks to cut rates further

ABO/NDO- The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has asked commercial banks to continue implementing measures to cut lending rates by a further 1.5-2 percentage points to support businesses.

The central bank also requested that credit institutions report on their pledges in 2023 to cut rates on current and new loans before August 25.

Since the start of 2023, the SBV has made a range of policy interest rate cuts as a measure to help commercial banks lower their input costs and thereby reduce their lending rates.

Agribank has made six rounds of cuts since the start of 2023.

Following the central bank’s move, commercial banks have cut their lending rates and rolled out large credit packages.

Agribank, for example, has made six rounds of cuts since the start of 2023, with lending rates now 2-4 percentage points lower than those at the beginning of the year.

Vietcombank recently also announced a further 0.5 percentage point cut to all Vietnamese dong loans from August until the end of the year.

For its part, Vietinbank launched a credit programme worth 15 trillion VND (625.8 million USD) for small and medium-sized enterprises with rates from 6.8% per year.

(Source: NDO)