The Ministry of Finance has announced that Vietnam's public debt to GDP ratio in 2015 would reach 61.3%, marginally up on last year 59.5%.
The announcement was made during a review conference of the finance sector on December 30. However, there was good news according to the Ministry of Finance as budget revenue increased by 5% compared to last year while government overspending reached VND226trn (USD10.2bn).
Even though state officials have continued to say that public debt is still under a 65% rate, several organisations and agencies have claimed Vietnam is heading towards a more dangerous level.
A report from the International Monetary Fund claimed that the safe ratio was from 40% to 50% and Vietnam's public debt is increasing at dangerous rate.
The rate was 51.7% in 2010 and increased to 59.6% in 2014. It is predicted that the rate will reach 64.3% in 2017.
A report by Asian Development Bank at the Vietnam Development Partnership Forum showed that while countries with low incomes usually have low public debts, Vietnam's public debt was much higher than other similar economies.
Public debts and state-guaranteed debts almost doubled since 2000, showing that Vietnam has a huge budget deficit problem.
