Vietnam is not seeking loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with bad debt in its banking system, said Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Le Minh Hung.
At an interview with reporters on September 7, the Deputy Governor confirmed that, “Vietnam has no intention of taking loans from the IMF."
"The Vietnamese Government has maintained a close relationship with the IMF over the last years, through dialogue and consultancy, but has not negotiated for loans," he added.
He said that any rumours that Vietnam is seeking IMF loans to solve its banking problems are completely unfounded.
Hung said, IMF’s lending objectives are to provide credit for countries with temporary difficulties in their ability to pay international loans and maintain adequate reserves in their banking sectors.
But the assessment of the Vietnamese Government and the IMF indicated that Vietnam has been seeing many positive developments, such as high trade surpluses and increases in currency reserves.
“The Vietnamese Government and IMF have not even negotiated about the possibility of an IMF credit to Vietnam and there is no reason for Vietnam to have seek access IMF credit,” he emphasised.
On September 6 and 7, Alfred Schipke, Head of Article 4 Mission of the IMF in charge of Vietnam, made a trip to Vietnam to make courtesy calls and introduce himself in his new position.
The IMF has provided positive assessments on current economic conditions, highly commended Government policy achievements during the last year, especially the effectiveness of monetary and exchange rate policies, the IMF official said.
He also suggested that, “From now to 2013, Vietnam should not loosen but continue the direction of its current policies in the context of its high inflation rate and potential risks from global food prices.”
According to SBV Governor, Nguyen Van Binh, the ratio of bad debt in the banking system is around 8.6% to 10%.