Prime Minister: 'Strive to reduce interest rates and strictly punish unfair interest rate competition'

(VNF) - Emphasizing the goal of striving to reduce lending interest rates, the Prime Minister requested strict handling of unfair interest rate competition practices.

This point was emphasized by Prime Minister Le Minh Hung when concluding the regular government meeting for July 2026, which took place on the afternoon of August 3rd.

At the meeting, the Prime Minister pointed out the limitations, difficulties, and challenges that need utmost attention, such as the pressure to maintain macroeconomic stability while achieving double-digit growth; the financial and monetary markets facing pressure on capital, interest rates, and liquidity; the slow and outstanding issuance of detailed regulations and guidelines for the implementation of laws and resolutions that have not been thoroughly addressed; and industrial, service, and construction growth lower than projected.
 

Furthermore, import and export activities are not sustainable, heavily dependent on the FDI sector and a few key markets; many businesses and households are still facing difficulties; disbursement of public investment capital in some ministries and key projects is slow; and many stalled projects have not been thoroughly resolved.

To promote growth and maintain macroeconomic stability, the Prime Minister requested ministries, agencies, and localities to periodically update and assess the feasibility of achieving growth targets in order to develop effective solutions to promote growth while maintaining macroeconomic stability and controlling inflation; to accelerate the allocation and disbursement of public investment capital, especially in the 10 ministries, agencies, and some provinces with low disbursement rates; to ensure 100% disbursement of the plan, and not to propose the return of central government budget capital for 2026 without reviewing and assessing the impact on achieving growth targets.

The Prime Minister requested the State Bank of Vietnam to focus on implementing solutions to stabilize interest rates, ensure liquidity, strive to reduce lending rates, reduce costs for the economy, and stabilize the monetary and foreign exchange markets; strictly handle unfair interest rate competition ; manage credit growth in accordance with macroeconomic developments and the economy's absorption capacity, and create conditions for key national projects to access capital sources.

The State Bank of Vietnam also needs to control credit to sectors with potential risks; accelerate the handling of bad debts and the restructuring of the credit institution system; closely monitor the international balance of payments, foreign currency flows, strengthen management and supervision, and stabilize the foreign exchange market; report to the Prime Minister on the operational situation of the banking system, liquidity, interest rates, credit for the economy, macroeconomic control, especially the safe and sound control of credit institutions.

The Ministry of Finance is focusing on increasing the scale of budget revenue collection at the central and local levels, striving to increase state budget revenue in 2026 by at least 10% compared to the estimated actual revenue in 2025; and researching and proposing tax measures to promote production and business, to be applied immediately from 2026.

The Prime Minister also requested the Ministry of Finance to coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to advise on flexible adjustments to fuel taxes to suit the situation; implement measures to promote the corporate bond market; quickly finalize the investment policy for the overall national target program to be submitted to the National Assembly at the first extraordinary session; and propose breakthrough solutions regarding mechanisms and policies to mobilize resources for investment and growth.

Source: VietNam Finance.