A major Vietnamese bank has raised interest rates on dollar deposits in a bid to meet strong demand for funds from importers.
Bankers said state-run Vietcombank, which handles around 30 percent of Vietnam's trade payments, boosted its rates on dollar deposits with terms from six months to 60 months by between 0.1 and 0.25 of a percentage point.
Vietcombank, the country's third-largest lender by assets, has offered 4.65 percent for six-month deposits from July 6, up from 4.4 percent previously, while its rate for 12-month deposits went up to 5 percent from 4.85 percent.
From July 6, partly private Phuong Nam Bank also raised its dollar savings rates by 0.5 percentage point, the bank said.
Dollar rates in Vietnam have thus risen to between 4.2 percent and 5.3 percent in the past month, from 4-4.7 percent earlier.
Vietnam cut import tariffs on many goods following its WTO accession in January and importers have increased their purchases to meet domestic consumption.
Meanwhile, rates on dong deposits have eased slightly.
Vietnam's four big lenders, including Vietcombank, quoted overnight lending rates on the dong at 4-5 percent on Monday versus 4.5-5.0 percent last Monday.
The range on six-month rates also widened to 7.8-8.7 percent, against 8.4-8.7 percent two weeks ago.
But bankers said demand for dong funds would rise in the next few months as the state poured money into key projects in ship building, transport and energy. The Planning and Investment Ministry has forecast Vietnam would boost investment for development to 118 trillion dong ($7.3 billion) between July and September, up 10 percent from the previous three-month period ending in June.
Source: Reuters
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