Customers are advised by bank staff about interest rates. (Photo: SGGP)

New interest rate level established

Except for four State-owned commercial banks, recently, more commercial banks have joined the wave of raising savings interest rates to attract capital. According to statistics of securities companies, in the first quarter of 2022, the savings interest rate has risen by 0.7-0.8 percent compared to 2021.

Banks have increased input interest rates because higher demand for capital mobilization when credit accelerates has urged them to raise interest rates to compete with other investment channels, such as real estate and securities. Market survey shows that currently, deposit interest rates at commercial banks are at 5-6 percent per annum for a 12-month term.

However, the highest interest rate of many commercial banks has climbed up to nearly 8 percent per annum, depending on the deposit amount and term. And yet, many commercial banks also said that the savings interest rate in the second quarter will inch up slightly by 0.03-0.06 percentage points and will surge by less than 2 percentage points for the whole year.

In the context of increasing input interest rates, many enterprises said that they are looking forward to the management agencies deploying the 2-percent interest rate subsidy package with the scale of VND40 trillion (US$1.73 billion) from the budget. However, many businesses worry that although the interest rate support package has not been implemented yet, the lending interest rate has risen. Therefore, it will be difficult for them to access low-interest-rate loans as expected to recover production activities.

According to a construction company in HCMC, although the maturity date in early May has not been reached yet, its lender has already announced that it will increase its interest rate by 0.5 percentage points compared to the current interest rate.

“It will make it difficult for businesses because all costs, such as transportation, warehousing, construction materials, and labor costs, have soared. Meanwhile, the capital mobilization channel by corporate bonds also faces difficulties after many scandals about real estate corporate bonds in the market over the past time," the representative of this company said.

Information from many small and medium-sized enterprises in HCMC also shows that, although many commercial banks have launched support packages with interest rates at 5-6 percent per annum, it is difficult for businesses to access because they are not eligible for loans.

Stabilizing interest rates for production

Despite the above fact, many economic experts said that lending interest rates in priority areas would still be controlled at a low level.

Dr. Le Xuan Nghia, a member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council, forecasts that the deposit interest rate will edge up this year, but the lending interest rates will not jump suddenly because the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) tightly controls the money supply. And when the money supply is controlled, cost-push inflation will also be curtailed quickly, so interest rates will hardly be pushed up too high.

Many commercial banks increase deposit interest rates to attract capital. (Photo: SGGP)