Trucks unloading steel coils at a seaport in southern Việt Nam. The country's economic policies and disease containment solutions have supported domestic economic activities and foreign trade to recover quickly and helped with budget collection. — VNA Photo

HÀ NỘI — Moody's Investors Service (Moody's)'s decision to maintain the Government of Việt Nam's long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings at Ba3 and changing the outlook to “positive” from “negative” is unprecedented, an official has said.

Moody’s raised the credit rating for Việt Nam to Ba3 in August 2018, and this is the first time it has changed the outlook for the country by two places, to “positive”, since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

It explained that this decision is in recognition of Việt Nam's economic development that has outpaced other countries with similar credit ratings amid extremely complex developments of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world.

It noted that Việt Nam's economic policies and disease containment solutions have supported domestic economic activities and foreign trade to recover quickly and helped with budget collection.

The medium-term growth prospects were also assessed as highly promising thanks to improvements in fiscal and debt metrics.

Trương Hưng Long, Director of the Finance Ministry’s Department of Debt Management and External Finance, said the move by Moody’s reflected its recognition of Việt Nam's solid macro-economic foundation, the Government’s remarkable success in controlling the pandemic and maintaining positive growth, as well as the enhanced stature thanks to the capacity of integrating into Asian supply chains.

Moody’s decision was an important recognition of the outcomes of the effective macro policies and the engagement of the entire political system in Việt Nam in successfully containing the pandemic and quickly recovering the economy, thus helping the country outpace others with similar ratings in the region and the world, he noted.

It was also a result of the patience and proactiveness of Government agencies, including the Ministry of Finance, in sharing updated macro-economic information with Moody’s for a long time, Long added. — VNS