Monday, July 25, 2011

Vietnam to Maintain Tight Policy to Curb Inflation Pressure

Vietnam will maintain a tight monetary policy in August after inflation accelerated for an 11th month in July, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, chairman of the government office, said at a briefing in Hanoi today.

Consumer prices jumped 22.16 percent from a year earlier, compared with June’s 20.82 percent pace, data released by the General Statistics Office yesterday show. That’s the highest inflation rate tracked by Bloomberg among 17 economies in Asia.

Inflationary pressures are still high, Nguyen Dong Tien, deputy governor of the nation’s central bank, said at the same meeting and Nguyen Tien Thoa, head of price control at the finance ministry, said “there are still risks that would affect the economy and prices from now to the end of the year.”

State Bank of Vietnam will continue managing credit for “non-production business” as part of measures to curb rising prices, Tien said. Banks must restrict lending to sectors that invest in stock and property markets to 22 percent of loans by June 30, and to 16 percent by the year-end, he reiterated.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said in February that he aims to curb credit growth to less than 20 percent this year from an earlier target of 23 percent. He also intends to narrow the budget deficit to below 5 percent of gross domestic product and cap the jump in money supply at 15 to 16 percent in 2011.

--Nguyen Kieu Giang. Editor: Ravil Shirodkar

To contact the Bloomberg News staff on this story: Nguyen Kieu Giang in Hanoi at giang1@bloomberg.net

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