Banks earn increasing profits from services
In the first nine months of the year, the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Việt Nam (Vietcombank)’s pre-tax profit exceeded the full-year 2017 figure and closed in on the year’s target.
In the first nine months of the year, the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Việt Nam (Vietcombank)’s pre-tax profit exceeded the full-year 2017 figure and closed in on the year’s target.
Analysts believe banking credit growth will ease off next year, but since lending activities will mainly be focused on the economy, growth will not be affected.
The State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) withdrew a total VNĐ18.87 trillion (nearly US$829 million) from the market in the week of November 26-31.
In the third quarter of this year Techcombank decided to pay stock dividends for 2017 to its shareholders at a ratio of two shares for each share held.
Chu Anh Tuấn, deputy general director of property developer Hà Đô Group, said recently his company expects consolidated profit after tax to be VNĐ700 billion (over US$30.43 million) this year.
A report from the Hồ Chí Minh Securities Company shows that bank interest rates have risen by 0.46 percentage points for short-term loans since the end of last year to 7-9 per cent and to 9-12.5 per cent for medium- and long-term loans.
The State Bank of Việt Nam has shown it is determined to continue with a tight monetary policy for the rest of the year with its decision to refuse to increase bank’s credit limits to constrain inflation and strictly control lending to high-risk sectors.
The HCM City Real Estate Association has recently proposed that the central bank should allow lenders to use 45 per cent of their short-term deposits for long- and medium-term loans next year instead of 40 per cent as it has mandated.
According to the General Statistics Office, as of September 20 the banking sector’s credit growth was 9.52 per cent, much lower than the 11.02 per cent rate recorded a year earlier.
Overseas remittances to Việt Nam are expected to decline mainly due to global factors.
Although Việt Nam’s balance of trade in the first eight months of the year stood at a surplus of US$2.8 billion, analysts warn about it returning to a deficit in the coming months.
According to the Việt Nam Real Estate Brokers Association last year around 23,000 units of condotels, or condo-hotels, were offered for sale, and 65-70 per cent of them were snapped up. However, demand for condotels seems to be falling.
Though the interest rates on government bonds with maturity terms of one to 15 years have increased in recent times, there seems to be little appetite for them among investors.
According to statistics from the State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV), as of May, State-owned banks’ combined equity was VNĐ252.472 trillion (US$10.83 billion), down 0.86 per cent.
Many banks are likely to seek an increase in their credit limits like they did in previous years when they used up their assigned quota halfway through the year.
Toyota Việt Nam has asked the Vĩnh Phúc Province People’s Committee to lease 9.1 hectares of land in Phúc Yên city to expand its plant and increase its annual capacity from the current 50,000 units to 90,000 by 2023.
Analysts say the main reason for the tourist industry’s modest participation in the stock market is that a majority of its companies are too small and fear they will be ignored by investors.
HCMC Securities Corporation (HSC) reported VNĐ325 billion in pre-tax profit in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 250 per cent.
Last month, Toyota Việt Nam unveiled the recommended retail prices for its first shipment of cars imported from Indonesia at zero tax, and most of them are higher than before the policy of zero tariffs took effect.