VietNamNet Bridge – The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) must continue last year's successful management of its flexible monetary policy to assure economic stability in 2015, said Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan yesterday, Dec 24.

Next year, the banking industry has targeted to have total payments to increase 16-18 per cent and a rise in credit growth of 13-15 per cent.

Addressing SBV's conference to discuss carrying out the banking industry's tasks next year, Doan reiterated that the banking industry's success last year in restructuring ailing commercial banks and handling non-performing loans had significantly contributed to gaining the trust of people and investors.

Doan required the banking industry to continue to effectively control inflation, accelerate governance risks and improve the quality of credit through closer supervision of lending activities.

Progress in resolving non-performing loans must also be implemented as scheduled, she said.

Next year, the banking industry has targeted to have total payments to increase 16-18 per cent and a rise in credit growth of 13-15 per cent.

The central bank will also persist with its stable foreign exchange policy next year, announcing it would maintain the depreciation of the Vietnamese dong against the US dollar at less than 2 per cent.

Besides applying credit policies to support enterprises, the central bank will also take bold measures to continuously implement a project for restructuring credit institutions and enhancing its supervision to ensure the safety of the entire banking system.

At the conference, SBV Governor Nguyen Van Binh said the banking industry would face difficulties next year in maintaining the current interest rates, as the economy continuously recovers and economic growth targets for 2015 are being set higher than this year, which will push up credit demands.

Binh said that it would be a tough task for the banking industry, with its foreign exchange stability policy next year.

He explained that though the world's economies, especially the US, are forecast to continuously recover, and Viet Nam is expected to sign more trade agreements with other countries, the insignificant rebound of the European and Japanese economies will negatively affect Viet Nam's exports next year.

With a forecast of a 10 per cent export value increase and a 5 per cent trade deficit next year, it would be a difficult task for the banking industry to keep the depreciation of the dong against the dollar at less than 2 per cent in 2015, he said, adding, however, that the banking industry would take greater efforts to meet the targets that have been set.

VNS/VNN