Vietnam PM asks central bank to consider raising policy rates after Fed move
A Vietnamese flag flies atop the State Bank building, near the Vietcombank and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam buildings, in central Hanoi, Vietnam November 23, 2017. REUTERS/Kham
HANOI : Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Thursday urged the country's central bank to consider raising its policy rates, following this week's rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Chinh also called on local banks to keep their lending rates stable to support post-pandemic economic recovery, the government said in a statement released during an ongoing meeting of policymakers in Hanoi.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Governor Nguyen Thi Hong said the country's biggest economic challenge at present was to keep inflation under control.
"Vietnam can keep inflation below 4 per cent this year as targeted by the National Assembly," Hong said, referring to the legislature,
She said the SBV would "stick to its measures to ensure macroeconomic stability", according to the statement.
Hong stressed, however, that "stable" does not mean "unchanged".
Vietnam's current policy rates are 2.5 per cent for the discount rate and 4.0 per cent for its refinance rate, which the SBV has left unchanged since late 2020, as a means of weathering the impacts of the pandemic on its economy.
