On June 29, 2023, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) had a meeting with the Article IV Mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the occasion of the Mission’s working visit to Vietnam in order to assess Vietnam’s macro-economic situation and outlook, and make policy recommendations to the relevant Government agencies.
Governor Nguyen Thi Hong speaks at the meeting
On the side of the IMF, there was Mr. Sanjaya Panth, Deputy Director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department; Mr. Paulo Medas, Head of the IMF's Article IV Mission; Mr. Francois Painchaud, IMF Resident Representative for Vietnam and the Lao P.D.R.. On the side of the SBV, there were representatives from the SBV Departments and other relevant entities.
At the meeting, Mr. Paulo Medas, Head of the IMF's Article IV Mission, shared with the SBV about the results of the Mission’s meetings with the SBV, the Ministries and agencies, businesses, commercial banks, investment funds and research institutions. The SBV Governor expressed her pleasure at the Mission’s acknowledgement of the SBV’s successes in the monetary policy management in the context of various difficulties and challenges in 2022, as well as during the first months of 2023.
Governor Nguyen Thi Hong shared that the Government, the SBV and all Ministries in Vietnam had assessed that 2023 would be another year with lots of difficulties and challenges to the economy. Therefore, the SBV has closely monitored the economic situations in the international and domestic markets, thereby standing ready to conduct appropriate measures to maintain the macro-economic stability and control the inflation.
According to the SBV Governor, despite all of the difficulties and challenges, Vietnam’s economy still has a lot of advantages, such as the stability of the macro economy and the political environment, the maintenance of the macro balances; a large labor market; the increasingly improved labor productivity; the continuous improvements of the mechanisms and the legal frameworks in alignment with the global and the domestic developments. On that basis, the SBV Governor emphasized that the Government of Vietnam had continued to conduct consistent measures to maintain the macro-economic stability, control the inflation, enhance the economic growth, and ensure the macro balances.
An overview of the meeting
Sharing about the key tasks of the SBV in the coming time, the SBV Governor asserted that the SBV would continue to manage the monetary policy in an active, flexible and effective manner in association with the fiscal policy and other macro policies. Governor Nguyen Thi Hong added that the SBV has been actively reviewing and improving the legal frameworks related to the state management of the banking operations, implementing strongly the Scheme of restructuring the system of credit institutions in association with NPL resolution for the 2021-2025 period, and improving the public confidence in the banking industry.
The SBV Governor requested the IMF to provide more policy advice to the SBV and other relevant authorities in the process of improving the legal frameworks, helping Vietnam to catch up with the international best practices, especially in the areas of management, supervision and inspection over banking operations. Moreover, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong also requested the IMF to continue to share its research reports, and to engage with Vietnamese authorities to do researches on the matters that both Vietnam and the IMF are interested in.
Members of the IMF Mission speak at the meeting
The IMF Mission highly appreciated the support and the coordination of the SBV in the cooperative activities between the IMF and all Vietnamese authorities. The IMF is committed to continuing the close cooperation with the SBV and other authorities to come up with more policy recommendations, and to conduct researches in line with Vietnam’s priorities.
Moreover, the IMF would also continue to enhance the training and capacity building activities for the staff of the SBV and other Vietnamese authorities in the areas of macro-economic management, statistics, fiscal and monetary policies, etc.
Le Hang