On the afternoon of March 2, at the regular Government press conference in February, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Pham Thanh Ha said that based on the determination of the credit growth target for 2024 at 15%, the State Bank has assigned all credit growth targets to credit institutions from December 31, 2023.

Through monitoring in the first two months of 2024, actual credit growth was slower than the same period of previous years despite abundant liquidity.

Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha said the reason was due to seasonal factors. Normally, in the fourth quarter of each year, credit growth is vibrant, and lending activities are also more vibrant.

In January and February, due to the Lunar New Year holiday, credit activities often decrease. Lending activities are not as vibrant as in the last months of the year.

According to Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha, this year there is another factor: the world economy has not improved, our financial market has not developed strongly, so it affects output and Vietnam's exports.

In addition, the domestic economy is still facing difficulties, credit demand is declining, so credit growth is low.

Regarding solutions, Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha said that the State Bank has implemented many solutions to promote credit growth of credit institutions.

In early February 2024, the State Bank of Vietnam issued a document directing credit institutions to focus on promoting credit growth solutions, strengthening review and simplifying lending procedures to increase customers' access to capital. This agency also increased the application of digital transformation to increase the accessibility of bank credit.

On February 20, the State Bank of Vietnam held a conference for the entire industry to promote bank credit, support businesses, and boost credit growth.

The Deputy Governor said that in the coming time, the State Bank will continue to review documents under the newly issued Law on Credit Institutions, based on the instructions to amend them in accordance with the new law to help increase access to capital for borrowers.

Currently, liquidity at banks is abundant and banks are also ready to inject capital to support production and business.

However, this is only on the lending side; on the borrowing side, the State Bank hopes to have the coordination of relevant agencies, creating more synchronous mechanisms and policies such as improving the operations of funds such as the Credit Guarantee Fund for small and medium enterprises... to increase the ability of these enterprises to access credit.

Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha said that on the borrower side, the bank also encourages businesses to actively contribute operational solutions and have more feasible investment and production projects.

In particular, we must be transparent and strengthen our financial capacity so that the lenders, which are credit institutions and banks, can also appraise and contribute capital to lend to customers conveniently in the future.

The Deputy Governor pointed out that credit growth in January 2024 was low, but credit growth in February 2024 was less low, proving that credit demand is increasing.

The State Bank of Vietnam will also continue to monitor credit growth in March 2024, growth in the first quarter of 2024 and the following quarters to have specific solutions to help promote better credit growth.