Hanoi (VNA)⛄ - Average lending interest rate in November reduced 0.28 percent to 9.3 percent 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 percent against January. According to the survey, ACB offered a rate of 9.26 percent 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 percent. In November, Vietinbank cut its lending rate between 0.5 percent and 1.5 percent per year in many terms while the rate at Vietcombank and Techcombank was also reduced 0.5 percent. The declining trend was also seen in Techcombank with a slight reduction of 0.04 percent for short-term loans and 0.21 percent for medium- and long-term loans. Eximbank cut the rate of 0.25 percent for short-term loans but increased it by 0.5 percent for long-term loans. However, some other lenders such as Sacombank and Dong A Bank raised their lending rates between 0.1 percent and 0.4 percent per year. In contrast to the reduction in lending rate, average deposit rate inched up 0.03 percent per year in November to 5.86 percent, after remaining stable at 5.83 percent in the previous two months. However, the average deposit rate for the past 11 months reduced 0.18 percent. In November, some banks including Vietinbank, ACB and Eximbank increased the rate for short-term deposits between 0.1 percent and 0.3 percent per year. Some smaller banks such as Maritime Bank, Dong A, and OCB increased their medium- and long-term deposits between 0.1 percent and 0.7 percent per year, besides a raise of between 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent for short-term deposits. However, in the month, BIDV inched down its deposit rate by 0.1 percent 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 percent per year in 2016.-VNA