Category: Affairs

The race of interest rate hikes among commercial banks is showing signs of cooling down as many banks have adjusted down the rate by several percentage points per year after the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday and have set stricter conditions for customers to enjoy the high rates.

 

At Techcombank, the highest deposit interest rate at the bank is currently 9.2% per year, against 9.5% per year before Tet. To enjoy the 9.2% interest rate, depositors must be a VIP customer with minimum savings of 3 billion VND over 12 months. For regular customers, the rate for 6-month deposits at the bank is also down to 8.5% per year from more than 9% before Tet.

 

At Sacombank, the highest interest rate before Tet was 9.8% per year. However, the highest rate is currently only 9.2% per year, applied to online deposits with terms from 15 to 36 months.

 

Saigonbank, which was the first bank to list a deposit interest rate of up to 10.5% per year last year, also lowered the savings interest rate. Accordingly, the highest interest rate at the bank is only 9.5% per year, applicable to 13-month deposits, both online and at the counter.

 

The same move was seen at BaoVietBank. Before Tet, customers could receive the highest interest rates of 9.8%, 10.2% and 10.3% per year for six-month, 13-month and 15-month terms, respectively, under a special savings deposit. However, the programme has ended and the rate of more than 9% is currently only applied on online channels.

 

Specifically, when depositing through EzSaving/ BAOVIET Pay for a 6-month term, customers can receive the highest interest rate of only 9.3% per year. For terms of 13 and 15 months, the rate is 9.4% and 9.5%, respectively.

 

Some other banks also lowered their highest interest rates such as DongABank (from 9.85% to 9.5% per year); BacABank (from 9.8% to 9.5% per year); and VietCapitalBank (from 9.5% to 8.9% per year).

 

At the four biggest banks BIDV, VietinBank, Agribank and Vietcombank, interest rates, in general, have not changed much compared to before Tet. BIDV and VietinBank both are listing the highest interest rate of 8.2% per year while the figure at Agribank is 7.9% and Vietcombank 7.4%.

 

According to experts, savings at banks declined in the fourth quarter of last year due to the seasonal factor of Tet when firms concentrated capital to produce goods and pay year-end bonuses to employees while individuals also often reserved more cash to spend for Tet. At that time, banks had to increase interest rates to lure deposits to ensure liquidity.

 

However, after Tet when cash flows into banks again, the banks’ liquidity is under less pressure. Therefore, banks also do not need to raise deposits with high interest rates.

 

According to finance expert Dinh The Hien, cash will continue to flow into banks as the savings rates remain high compared to those of previous years.

 

Deposit interest rates in the first quarter of 2023 will be commonly at 6.5-7% per year at large-sized and good-quality banks and 8-9% at small-sized banks, Hien forecast, expecting that by the end of the second quarter of 2023, the interest rate will return to the normal level at around 7% per year./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Singapore’s manufacturing outlook may continue gloomy in the first quarter of 2023, after its manufacturing output shrank for a third consecutive month in December last year, said economists.

 

According to data released by the Economic Development Board (EDB) of Singapore, the industrial production in last December fell 3.1% compared to the same period of the previous year, making this the third consecutive month of decline.

 

Excluding biomedical manufacturing, Singapore’s output increased by 0.3% year-on-year.

 

Output for the chemicals, precision engineering and general manufacturing clusters also declined on a year-on-year basis at 9.5%, 4.1% and 2.8% respectively.

 

The electronics sector was one of two clusters that saw output growth in December, after five consecutive months of decline. However, most economists believe that the electronics industry’s recovery may be temporary.

 

Selena Ling, OCBC Bank’s chief economist & head of treasury research & strategy, warned that Singapore’s industrial production may “stay in the doldrums” in the first quarter of 2023.

 

However, the Southeast Asian nation’s manufacturing activity will gradually stabilise in subsequent quarters to bring full-year 2023 growth to 1.6% year-on-year, she said./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam targets having 96% of urban household wastes collected and processed up to standards this year, said Director of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Vietnam Environment Administration Hoang Van Thuc.

 

Up to 92% of operating industrial and processing areas will have concentrated wastewater treatment systems while 40% of household wastes will be processed through incineration, electricity generation, and recycling models instead of landfilling, Thuc said.

 

Last year, Vietnam’s recycling industry expanded by 11.3% annually, placing the country the 10th globally in terms of metal, plastic, paper and glass recycling, laying a foundation for circular economic development

 

The Vietnamese Government has set a goal to raise the rate of solid waste collected and safely treated to 100% in 2050 as part of the approved national strategy on green growth for 2021-2030 with a vision to 2050.

 

Overall, the strategy aims at restructuring the economy in connection with renewing the growth model to achieve economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, social equality towards a green economy, carbon neutrality, and contributing to limiting global warming.

 

Per the strategy, by 2050, 100% of urban areas will have their drainage systems completed to remove the possibility of flooding. All waste water will be treated following technical standards.

 

In special-class and first-class municipalities, public transport will handle at least 40% and 15%, respectively, of passenger volumes.

 

Meanwhile, by the time, at least 45 urban areas will ratify and implement their own master plans on developing green growth city./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

The State Bank of Vietnam has issued new regulations on cases of purchasing, sending, and bringing foreign currencies abroad for sponsorship and assistance purposes of organisations.

 

According to Circular 20/2022/TT-NHNN, those cases include purchasing, sending, and bringing foreign currencies abroad for sponsorship and assistance purposes under commitments and agreements between the State, Government, and local administrations with other countries. The funding comes from the budgets or money sources of sponsoring and assistance providing organisations.

 

The cases also include purchasing and sending foreign currencies abroad for supporting the settlement of natural disaster, epidemic, and war consequences. The funding is from donations by domestic organisations and individuals, and/or money sources of sponsors and assistance providers.

 

They also cover purchasing and sending foreign currencies abroad to finance programmes, funds, and projects established by domestic organisations and/or foreign ones with the view of supporting and encouraging the development in the fields of culture, education (scholarship granting), and health care. The funding comes from money sources of sponsoring organisations.

 

The document also stipulates other cases of transferring money abroad from Vietnam for other purposes. It will take effect on February 15./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

Indonesia’s Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan has called for the promotion of economic cooperation between his country and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), saying he expects the free trade agreement (FTA) between the two sides to be completed soon.

 

At his recent meeting with a member of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Board and EEC Minister for Integration and Macroeconomics Sergei Glazyev, Hasan said that the launch of negotiations on the Indonesia-EAEU free trade agreement last December is a historic moment to bolster bilateral relations to a higher level.

 

During their meeting, Hasan and Glazyev also talked about the Indonesia-EEC Joint Working Group (JWG). The Indonesian minister said that the two parties have entered into a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) to establish the JWG as a discussion forum on trade and investment technical cooperation.

 

Indonesia welcomes various initiatives to optimise the potential of bilateral economic relations, he said, adding that it is very important for both parties to complete negotiations as soon as possible.

 

Meanwhile, Glazyev said that although the bilateral trade has been quite good, there are still opportunities to improve it.

 

FTA agreements and discussions on technical cooperation under the MoC are expected to encourage two-way trade and investment flows, he added.

 

From January to November 2022, the total trade between Indonesia and the EAEU reached 4 billion USD, up 32.75% year on year./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The 15 free trade agreements (FTAs) to which Vietnam is a member are expected to give a boost to Vietnam’s export activities this year, towards the growth target of 6%.

 

Phuc Sinh JSC, based in Ho Chi Minh City, has exported 50 containers of coffee, pepper, cashew nut and other products to Europe, the US and the Middle East in early 2023.

 

The company shipped abroad about 50 million USD worth of goods to Europe in 2020 and 63 million USD in 2021, which grew some 30% last year.

 

It is among the hundreds of domestic firms that are effectively utilising the FTAs, contributing to raising Vietnam’s agro export revenue to over 53 billion USD in 2022.

 

Chairman and General Director of Phuc Sinh JSC Phan Minh Thong noted that with tax incentives, the deals will help Vietnamese goods compete with those from other countries despite difficulties forecast for this year as many major importers are expected to face inflation.

 

Import-export was Vietnam’s bright spot in 2022, hitting a record of around 730.2 billion USD, of which 371.5 billion USD came from export, statistics show.

 

Notably, thanks to the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), garment-textile exports to the EU reached 4.46 billion USD, representing a year-on-year rise of 34.7%.

 

The sector is projected to rake in 47-48 billion USD this year, which is within its reach as the FTAs will accelerate the relocation of investment from other countries to Vietnam, according to Chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) Vu Duc Giang.

 

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien also held that the agreements will further prove their role this year as the market share of many key exports still remains limited in foreign countries./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Singapore and other Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economies are seeing downgrades to their 2023 growth outlooks because slowing global growth will outweigh the positive impact from China’s economic reopening, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said on January 31.

 

The above-mentioned factor prompted the IMF to reduce Singapore’s GDP growth outlook for 2023 to 1.5% from a 2.3% projection issued last October, he told a news briefing on the IMF’s latest global growth forecasts.

 

The forecast for ASEAN-5, namely Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, was cut to 4.3% from 4.5%. The group’s 2024 economic growth is predicted to go down by 0.2 percentage point to 4.7%.

 

Daniel Leigh, chief of the research department at the IMF said ASEAN is unlikely to maintain its growth pace as in 2022, with a rate of 5.2% while noting the surprising speed with China’s reopening this year. However, he noted that geopolitical fragmentation remains negative for everyone, although some economies benefit from supply chains relocating out of China.

 

Earlier on the same day, the IMF released its World Economic Outlook report, which raised its forecast for global economic growth in 2023 due to a “surprising recovery” in demand in the US and Europe, declining energy costs, and China’s reopening.

 

It believes global growth will fall from 3.4% in 2022 to 2.9% in 2023, but still higher than the 2.7% predicted in October 2022. It also revised its forecasts for a number of major economies such as the US, the Eurozone, the UK, China and India. The UK is the only major developed economy that is predicted to be in recession this year, with GDP to shrink 0.6% as households struggle to cope with rising costs of living./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency

 

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) began its first trading session following the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday with a gong-beating ceremony on January 31.

 

In her remarks, Chairwoman of the State Securities Commission Vu Thi Chan Phuong noted that the domestic stock market maintained its stability and smooth sailing last year amid obstacles to the national economy.

 

As the international economic and political situation is expected to continue developing complicatedly and unexpectedly this year, the sector will further consolidate the legal framework and policies on market development, and review and study relevant legal documents, mechanisms and policies, making them match with the reality, she said.

 

It will also step up the restructuring and perfection of systems in service of the market, offer new products and services, and intensify supervisions, inspections and the handling of wrongdoings, Phuong stressed, adding that solutions will be taken to consolidate investors’ confidence in the market.

 

At the end of the last trading session of 2022, the VN-Index, which tracks the performance of the HOSE, closed at 1,007 points, down 32.78% as compared with the end of 2021.

 

Despite a sharp decline, the domestic stock market remained stable last year, and most listed companies have recovered after the COVID-19 pandemic./.

 

Source: Vietnam News Agency