BANK CREDIT GROWTH HITS TWO-YEAR HIGH IN FIRST HALF OF YEAR

The 9.9 per cent first-half credit growth was announced at the press conference to review the performance of the banking industry in H1 2025 and implement works for H2 2025.

Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Phạm Thanh Hà speaks at the press conference. VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Credit growth by the end of June 2025 surged by 9.9 per cent compared to the same period last year to more than VNĐ17.2 quadrillion (US$656.4 billion), the highest rate since 2023, helping to boost the country’s GDP growth, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Phạm Thanh Hà said at an event on Tuesday.

At the press conference to review the performance of the banking industry in H1 2025 and implement works for H2 2025, Hà said that in the first months of 2025, the world economy grew slowly due to the impact of many factors such as tariff policies and increasing geopolitical tensions.

Potential risks in the world financial and monetary markets put pressure on the SBV’s management of monetary policy, exchange rates and interest rates, as well as the implementation of the goal of supporting economic growth of 8 per cent or more in 2025.

“In the context of the unpredictable international economic and political situation, the SBV has flexibly managed exchange rates and coordinated monetary policy tools to stabilise the foreign exchange market, contributing to stabilising the macro economy and controlling inflation,” Hà said.

In the first half of 2025, Hà said that the SBV continued to maintain the policy interest rates, creating conditions for credit institutions to access capital from the SBV at low costs, which created conditions for them to support the economy.

“The SBV regularly directed credit institutions to continue to reduce operating costs, increase the application of information technology, digital transformation and other solutions to strive to lower lending interest rates," Hà said.

"The average lending interest rate has currently decreased by about 0.64 percentage points compared to the end of last year.”

Assessing the credit growth rate in H1 2025, Phạm Chí Quang, Director of the SBV’s Monetary Policy Department, told the conference that this was a high growth rate, 2.5 times higher than the same period in 2024.

According to Quang, to gain the high credit growth, the SBV assigned all credit growth targets to banks at the beginning of the year and regularly directed credit institutions to promote credit growth with focus on production and business sectors, the Government’s priority sectors and economic growth drivers, while still ensuring credit safety through strictly controlling credit for sectors with potential risks.

The SBV has implemented solutions to facilitate customers' access to bank credit capital. The banking sector has actively implemented credit programmes such as the VNĐ145 trillion social housing and worker housing loan programme and a VNĐ500 trillion credit program for infrastructure and digital technology investment loans to implement key and important national projects.

Based on the economic growth and inflation targets for 2025 set by the National Assembly and the Government, the SBV expects credit growth for the entire banking system in 2025 to be about 16 per cent, with appropriate adjustments based on developments and actual situations.

“As capital is the lifeblood of the economy, credit is an indispensable driver for the Vietnamese economy to achieve 8 per cent growth this year and double-digit growth in the following years,” Quang said.

According to Quang, with this year's inflation target of about 4.5 per cent, higher than in 2024, the SBV has more room for credit growth. However, along with promoting credit growth, the banking system always pays attention to controlling bad debt, ensuring banking system safety, contributing to controlling inflation and stabilising the macro economy.

Deputy Governor Hà said the US on Tuesday announced a tax rate of 25-40 per cent on 14 countries, effective from August 1, and warned that it would increase taxes if these countries retaliate, showing that the global economy would still be uncertain in the coming period. Although Việt Nam’s inflation had cooled down to the Government’s target level, there was still a potential risk of increasing again.

“Under the context, in the second half of this year, the SBV will operate monetary policy proactively, flexibly, promptly, effectively, synchronously, harmoniously and closely with fiscal policy and other policies, contributing to prioritising economic growth while stabilising the macro-economy and controlling inflation,” Hà added.

The SBV would continue to closely monitor international and domestic market developments, flexibly manage exchange rates in accordance with market conditions, and coordinate synchronously with monetary policy tools to stabilise the foreign exchange market, contributing to stabilising the macro-economy and controlling inflation, he concluded. — BIZHUB/VNS

Source: VNS