VietNamNet Bridge – The global debt clock at 3 pm of April 15, Hanoi time, showed that Vietnam’s public debt was equal to 49.2 percent of the country’s GDP. With the total public debt of $72.523 billion and the population of 89,740,893 people, every Vietnamese bears the public debt of $808.1.

Prior to that, on January 17, 2013, Vietnam’s public debt was $70.576 billion and the public debt per capita was $789.9, amounting to 49.5 percent of GDP, up by 13 percent in comparison with 2011, according to Dan Viet.

On September 4, 2012, Vietnam’s public debt was $67.6 billion, equal to 50 percent of GDP, and the debt per capita was $756.9.

The figures showed the downward tendency in the ratio of Vietnam’s public debt on the GDP, but an upward tendency in the public debt per capita.

Vietnam’s public debt has increased by $4.9 billion since September 4, 2012.

Also according to Global debt clock, the global public debt by 3 pm of April 15 had reached $50,419 billion. Some other economies have the higher ratios of the debt on capita than Vietnam’s. The US, for example, has the ratio of $38.087 per capita, China’s $1.045, Thailand’s $2,738, Malaysia’s $6,148 and Russia’s $1,224.

However, other economies have the ratios of debt on GDP lower than Vietnam’s. China’s 16.1 percent, Thailand’s 48.8 percent, Russia 8.2 percent. The US, Malaysia, India have the ratios higher than Vietnam’s, at 75.9 percent, 57.5 percent and 50.3 percent, respectively.

The bulletins released by the Ministry of Finance showed that in 2010 and 2011, Vietnam’s ratio of public debt on GDP in 2010 and 2011 were 56.3 percent and 54.9 percent, respectively.

IMF and WB said Vietnam’s public debts had amounted to 48.3 percent of GDP by the end of 2012 and 48.2 percent in 2013.

In an interview given to Nguoi lao dong, Nguyen Tri Dung, the National Assembly’s National Manager of the macroeconomic policy project, said the figure may increase rapidly because of the bad debts of the state owned enterprises. Since many enterprises are on the brink of bankruptcy, the government would have to come to give financial support to them in case they cannot pay due debts. And in order to offset the expenses, the government would have to issue government bonds, which would result in the sovereign debt increases.

Vietnam’s current foreign debt was 41.5 percent of GDP in 2011, a safe level. However, in case the foreign debt exceeds 50 percent of GDP, if Vietnam pursues overly big and costly projects which cannot bring adequate efficiency, this, plus the state owned enterprises’ bad debts, would push the total public debt up to 66.8 percent.

Moreover, if counting on the foreign debts not guaranteed by the government, accounting for 10.6 percent of GDP, the state owned enterprises’ debts to the banking sector, accounting for 16.5 percent of GDP, and the other debts, the total public debt may climb to 95 percent of GDP, far exceeding the safety line of 60 percent of GDP.

The National Finance Supervisory Council has warned that the safety of the public debt may be influenced by the issuance of local authorities’ bonds.

“I think that if local authorities issue bonds in masses, this would lead to undesired effects,” Dung said. “This could be seen as the factor which would lead to the increase in the public debt, thus causing negative impacts on the national program on restructuring the public debts in medium and long term”.

Compiled by C. V