A majority of credit institutions in the country expect an upward trend in their business in 2019 after gaining good results last year, according to a State Bank of Viet Nam’s survey released late last week.

Under the business sentiment survey, which covered domestic and foreign commercial banks operating in the country, 86 per cent of credit institutions said their business situation improved in 2018, and 88 per cent hoped it would continue to get better this year, of which 35 per cent anticipated ‘significant improvement’.

A majority of the institutions also believe the banking system’s liquidity in terms of both the Vietnamese dong and foreign currencies will remain positive in 2019.

They said the rate of non-performing loans out of the outstanding credit balance was kept at a low level last year and tends to decline in 2019. They expect a growth rate at 13.9 per cent for capital mobilisation and a credit growth rate at 15.27 per cent by the end of this year, with faster growth in mobilised capital and credit in the Vietnamese dong.

The institutions added the business environment for them has been strongly improved since last year and more improvement was expected for this year.

About 80.7 per cent of them predict the demand for banking services will increase, and clients will have the biggest demand for getting loans, making deposits and using payment services.

While 63.5 per cent forecast overall risks of all client groups will remain stable in 2019, 15.3 per cent said the risks are likely to decrease, the survey shows.

With optimism about growth prospects for 2019, banks also forecast the industry’s labour market to see positive changes in the coming months, of which some 76.74 per cent of them plan to recruit more this year and 18.61 per cent to keep the workforce unchanged. — VNS