Accordingly, the State Bank will reduce lending interest rates by 0.5-1% to support people and businesses.

Specifically, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is developing a plan to implement Resolution 11/NQ-CP of the Government on the Socio-economic recovery and development program.

In the upcoming period, the State Bank will continue to direct credit institutions to reduce operating costs to further lower interest rates.

At the same time, review lending mechanisms and procedures in line with market realities, while ensuring credit quality and system safety. This will support borrowers and remove difficulties for production and business activities.

Earlier, in 2020, the policy interest rate dropped sharply by 1.5-2%. After that, the SBV also continued to keep the policy interest rate low in 2021. Thus, the lending interest rate level has decreased by about 1%/year in 2020 and 0.82%/year in 2021.

For the 2022-2023 plan, the State Bank will strive to reduce lending interest rates by about 0.5% - 1% in the next 2 years, especially for priority sectors..

In addition, at the fiscal and monetary policy to support the Socio-economic recovery and development program, the Government has directed to support the interest rate of 2%/year for 2 years from 2022-2023 for loans with loan interest rates above 6%/year.

Bank for Social Policies is the disbursing unit in the period of 2022-2023 with the total capital for interest rate support at a maximum of 3,000 billion dong.

Regarding the debt repayment term structure, in order to increase the ability to access capital for businesses, right from the beginning of 2020, specifically Circular 01/2020/TT-NHNN has created a legal framework for credit institutions to restructure debt repayment terms, exempt and reduce interest and fees, and maintain debt groups.

The implementation period for debt repayment rescheduling, exemption and reduction of interest and fees of credit institutions and branches of the State Bank of Vietnam has been extended to June 30, 2022 (instead of December 31, 2021).

Kylie Nguyen