The lending interest rate is expected to further expand with the interest rate reducing sharply in the inter-bank, central bank bill and G-bond markets over the past 10 days.

According to a report from Maritime Bank’s market research division, a sharp drop in the interest rate has been continuously seen in the G-bond market this week.

On Wednesday, the State Treasury issued VND3.6 trillion of G-bond with the interest rates falling sharply. The rates for five-year, 15-year and 20-year bonds declined by 0.21, 0.50 and 0.53 percentage points to 4.48, 5.75 and 6.02 per cent per year, respectively.

Wednesday was also the third consecutive day the State Bank of Viet Nam successfully issued bills to withdraw money. The interest rate of the bills dropped sharply to 0.79 per cent per year against 1.1 per cent in the previous session and 1.75 per cent in the same period last year.

Despite the significant withdrawal, which totalled nearly VND21 trillion (US$921 million), the interest rate on dong loans in the inter-bank market continued to slide sharply by 0.19 to 0.44 percentage points, hitting the lowest level from the beginning of this year. Specifically, overnight, one-week, two-week and one-month rates stood at 1.2 per cent, 1.36 per cent, 1.54 per cent, and 2.34 per cent, respectively.

The inter-bank market also saw the rate of dong loans sliding to a lower level than that of the dollar. The overnight rate for dollar loans stood high at 1.31 per cent per year on Wednesday.

After the central bank cut policy rates by 0.25 percentage points at the start of last week, a series of local banks reduced lending rates for priority sectors by between 0.5 and 1 percentage points per year. – VNS