A total of 16,000 enterprises across Vietnam had filed for bankruptcy in the first four months of this year, up 16.9% from a year earlier, a report said.
Vietnam’s economy remains sluggish
The National Financial Supervisory Committee issued a report on Vietnam’s economic situation during the four-month period on May 2.
The report lists the usual obstacles facing companies, such as access to capital, increased input costs, slow sales and high inventories.
“Corporate weakening would not only affect state budget revenues for this year but slow down the economy’s rebound next year,” the committee warned.
According to the committee, demand in the entire economy is still rather weak as the USD1-billion trade deficit in April just simply depicted a sharp fall in export revenues.
Credit growth rates in the banking system showed positive signs compared to the same period last year. The credit growth rate in the first three weeks of April this year was up 1.14% against the end of last year.
However, the growth rate is still much lower than the demand of the national economy, the committee noted.
In order to ensure enough capital for targeted investment projects, the credit growth rate should reach at least 1.5% in the first quarter of this year compared to late 2012. Meanwhile, by mid-April this year, the credit growth rate had edged up to only 1.44% from the beginning of this year.
The committee attributed the low credit growth rate to high lending rates and the level of bad debts.
The speed of the economy’s recovery and total demand in the time to come would heavily depend on economic restructuring and the settlement of bad debts, the committee added.
