VIETNAM - Bank deposits offer best returns, says SBV

by lexie Sat Nov 12, 2011 2:23 pm

November 12, 2011

Bank deposits offer best returns, says SBV

The State Bank of Viet Nam's website this week said commercial bank deposits now offered a better return to investors than securities, real estate, US dollars or gold due to the slowdown in inflation in the past couple of months and the increasing stability of the domestic currency.

Commercial banks were now offering interest rates on deposits of one-month or longer at 14 per cent per year.

If the consumer price index continued to rise at a rate of less than 1 per cent per month, such rates were a "good deal", the State Bank said.

The General Statistics Office announced that inflation rose at a rate of just 0.36 per cent in October, the slowest since the beginning of the year and the third consecutive month in which inflation was less than 1 per cent.

Inflation was expected to be restrained to within 18 per cent for the entire year, and the National Assembly on Wednesday approved an inflation target of 10 per cent for next year.

Meanwhile, the outlook for US dollar, gold, securities and real estate investments were more pessimistic. Since October 5, the dong has lost about three-quarters of a per cent of its value against the US dollar, based on series of small, incremental adjustments to the interbank foreign exchange rate, but State Bank Governor Nguyen Van Binh vowed back in August that the value of the dong would not depreciate by more than 1 per cent against the US dollar before the end of the year. Senior economist Le Dang Doanh said that the value of the dong remained stable.

National Financial Supervisory Commission vice chairman Le Xuan Nghia, said that a significant rise in the nation's foreign currency reserves, along with a surplus of about US$4 billion in the country's balance of payments this year – the first such surplus since 2007 – would also help stabilise the forex market.

Meanwhile, gold has stabilised with the domestic price hewing closer to global prices, and the domestic real estate market remains sluggish, with many developers unable to sell properties or obtain new financing. The stock market also continued stagnant, with tight credit and high interest rates discouraging investors.

http://www.vietfinancenews.com/2011/11/bank-deposits-offer-best-returns-says.html#more