Since early August, many commercial banks nationwide have lowered their lending interest rates for their Vietnamese dong short-term loans. This is the 2^nd time so far this year that banks have reduced lending interest rates to support businesses.

Vietcombank is one of the country’s pioneering banks in cutting lending rates starting from early August.

In particular, the Viet Nam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank), the Viet Nam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank), the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam (Vietcombank), and the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV), reduce their lending rates to firms involved in such priority aspects as agriculture, support industries, hi-tech, and start-ups.

The rate reduction will be applied for both current and new borrowers at these banks from 1 August - 31 December.

Mr Pham Bac Binh, the Chairman of the Da Nang Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) Association, said the lowering of lending rates would help businesses partly reduce their production costs, thereby enhancing their competitiveness.

The Director of the Tho Tran Commerce and Technique Co Ltd, Mr Tran Duc Tho, underscored the lending rate reduction was a good signal for enterprises, especially SMEs, in the context of the significant hike in raw material prices.

Mr Vo Minh, the Director of the city’s branch of the State Bank of Viet Nam, remarked that the cutting of lending rates being conducted by large banks showed the support of banks for the business community. He added the move would create a wave of interest rate decrease in other banks, thereby facilitating enterprises to promote their production and business activities.