Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Nguyen Thi Hong (Photo: VNA)
Speaking at the National Assembly’s question-and-answer session on November 3 she said the safe and healthy development of the property market is important to socio-economic development. This market should mobilise capital through different channels such as direct investment, the stock market, corporate bonds, the state budget, and funding from people and enterprises.
Credit is just one of the funding channels for the property market, she noted.
Credit governance by the SBV is aimed at helping control inflation, stabilise the macro-economy, guarantee safety for credit institutions’ operations, and ensure the stability of the monetary and foreign exchange markets, Hong went on.
The Governor elaborated that when priority is given to inflation control and safety for the banking system, the expansion of credit for the real estate market may cause difficulties for the SBV’s efforts to achieve the monetary policy’s target. Therefore, credit governance should be prudent.
Besides, real estate credit also poses latent risks since loans for this field are often long-term ones with big value while the majority of money mobilised by banks is short-term capital, she said.
Regarding credit for social housing, the Government issued a decree that assigned the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) to act as the coordinator of the lending programme. Some designated credit institutions have also taken part in this programme. So far, the VBSP has lent out over VND10.58 trillion ( US$425.5 million) for social housing, with nearly VND9.15 trillion in outstanding loans as of September 30.
In the time ahead, the monetary policy will still prioritise macro-economic stability and safety for the banking system. Therefore, credit tools and solutions for real estate will be considered in relation with other tools so as to achieve the monetary policy’s target, the official added.
