HANOI: Average lending interest rate in November reduced 0.28 per cent to 9.3 per cent per year, the highest slide for the past nine months.
According to a survey of HCM City Securities Corporation (HSC), under the November survey on deposit and lending interest rates, the average lending rate this year cut by 0.74 per cent against January.
According to the survey, ACB offered a rate of 9.26 per cent per year for long-term loans, the lowest level in the whole banking system. Meanwhile, the lowest rate for short-term loans listed at banks was 7.5 per cent.
In November, Vietinbank cut its lending rate between 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent per year in many terms while the rate at Vietcombank and Techcombank was also reduced 0.5 per cent.
The declining trend was also seen in Techcombank with a slight reduction of 0.04 per cent for short-term loans and 0.21 per cent for medium- and long-term loans.
Eximbank cut the rate of 0.25 per cent for short-term loans but increased it by 0.5 per cent for long-term loans. However, some other lenders such as Sacombank and Dong A Bank raised their lending rates between 0.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent per year.
In contrast to the reduction in lending rate, average deposit rate inched up 0.03 per cent per year in November to 5.86 per cent, after remaining stable at 5.83 per cent in the previous two months. However, the average deposit rate for the past 11 months reduced 0.18 per cent.
In November, some banks including Vietinbank, ACB and Eximbank increased the rate for short-term deposits between 0.1 per cent and 0.3 per cent per year. Some smaller banks such as Maritime Bank, Dong A, and OCB increased their medium- and long-term deposits between 0.1 per cent and 0.7 per cent per year, besides a raise of between 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent for short-term deposits.
However, in the month, BIDV inched down its deposit rate by 0.1 per cent per year for three, six and 18 month terms. According to HSC, the lending interest rate reduction is good news for businesses but it is bad for banks as it will reduce their profits.
However, HSC also forecast that it could be a temporary trend at year-end as it would make it difficult for the deposit rate to remain as low as it is currently. The company also anticipated that both deposit and lending rates would inch up 0.5 per cent per year in 2016.
