Central bank asks lenders to prioritise production, business

HÀ NỘI — The State Bank of Việt Nam has asked credit institutions and branches of foreign banks to give priority to production and business while lending.

According to Document 563/NHNN-TTGSNH issued on Tuesday, the central bank asked for control over credit growth to be tightened to meet the target. The credit growth target for 2018 was set at 17 per cent, lower than the growth rate of 18.17 per cent in 2017.

The credit expansion must be associated with controlling credit quality to prevent new loans from turning into bad debts.

Credit must be limited to sectors with high risks, such as real estate and securities sectors, the central bank said, adding that a close watch must be maintained on the progress of the property projects, financial capacity of developers and mortgage assets.

The management on quality of consumer credit must be enhanced to prevent the use of consumer loans in investing in real estate and securities.

Credit should prioritise agriculture, rural, export and part-supplying industries, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises and enterprises applying high technologies in business and production, according to the document.

The central bank’s statistics showed that credit in business and production accounted for 80 per cent of the total outstanding loans in 2017. — VNS