Vietnam to limit 2008 loan growth to 30 pct-report

Vietnam to limit 2008 loan growth to 30 pct-report

Vietnam's central bank aims to limit growth in bank loans to 30 percent in 2008 after a jump of 37.8 percent last year, the official Hanoi Moi newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Bad debt in the banking sector was cut to 2 percent of loans by the end of 2007 from 2.65 percent a year earlier, it said, citing central bank figures released at an industry meeting on Wednesday. The central bank, the State Bank of Vietnam, said it wanted to slow down lending to help ensure a sustainable pace of economic growth and to control inflation, which hit 12.63 percent in December, the highest since December 1995. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the central bank said its monetary policy this year would aim to keep exchange rates stable and help control inflation. The non-convertible Vietnamese dong eased just 0.08 percent last year against the dollar, after a fall of 1.4 percent in 2006. The government aims for 9 percent economic growth this year after an 8.48 percent expansion in 2007, the highest in just over a decade. (Thanh Nien news)