VietNamNet Bridge – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked ministries, branches and localities to take synchronous measures to curb inflation, stabilize the macroeconomy and ensure jobs for labourers.

At the regular cabinet meeting in Hanoi on March 30, PM Dung said these agencies must strictly implement social security policies, especially for poor people, beneficiaries of social welfare and wage earners, and build policies for low-income workers.

Cabinet members agreed on the Finance Ministry's proposal to provide allowances for low-income earners and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), due to price hikes.

At the meeting, which discussed the socio-economic situation in March and the first quarter of 2011 and reviewed the implementation of Government Resolution No. 11/NQ-CP,  PM Dung called on the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to closely manage interest rates and for banks to reduce profit and cut down expenditure in order to lower lending interest rates.

He also instructed the SBV to issue regulations on foreign currency management, following a directive to reduce foreign currency lending and preserve a foreign currency reserve, including ensuring enough foreign currency for petrol imports.

Cabinet members said during the three-month period, ministries, branches and localities tightened budget expenditures, cut down public investment and took drastic measures to support production, encourage exports and ensure social security.

Thanks to this progress, industrial production increased by 14.2 percent year on year, agricultural production by 3.5 percent, foreign investment by 1.6 percent, exports by 33.7 percent, and budget collections accounted for 21.2 percent of the year’s estimates (the highest level for the period over the last three years), keeping the GDP growth rate at 5.43 percent.

According to Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc, 30 ministries and central agencies, 63 provinces and cities, 12 economic groups and State-run corporations reported the cut of 1,387 projects worth nearly VND3.4 trillion.

However, cabinet members said that political insecurity in the Middle East and North African countries, increased in the prices of goods on the world market and those of power, coal and petrol on the domestic market will cause difficulties in an effort to curb inflation.

In March, the consumer price index rose 6.12 percent from last December, resulting in a 12.79 percent year-on-year increase in the first quarter.

VietNamNet/VOV