In the framework of the IMF/WB 2018 Annual Meetings, Governor Le Minh Hung of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) had a meeting with Deputy Managing Director Mitsuhiro Furusawa of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on October 11st.
At the meeting, SBV Governor Le Minh Hung briefed the IMF Deputy Managing Director of Vietnam’s socio-economic development results over the first 9 months of 2018. Accordingly, Vietnam’s economy in the first 9 months expanded by 6.98%, the highest level recorded since 2011; the inflation continued to be controlled under the target mean ratio of 4% for the whole year as defined by the National Assembly; the core inflation was stable at 1.41%. The amount of disbursed FDI capital reached USD 13.25 billion, increased by 6% as compared to the same period of 2017. The banking sector has been drastically implementing the Banking Sector Restructuring Plan to 2020, and has obtained encouraging achievements; the ratio of NPLs has reduced remarkably.
The SBV Governor expressed his thanks and high appreciation for the support and policy consultancy of the IMF in general, and the Deputy Managing Director extended to Vietnam in the areas of the structural reforms, improvement of the monetary policy performance, the forex reserve management, improving the forecast and statistics services, the fiscal policy and public investment management.
Commending Vietnam’s socio-economic achievements in the first months of 2018, Deputy Managing Director Furusawa affirmed that the SBV has contributed greatly to the good performance of Vietnam’s socio-economic development through its effective management of the monetary policy, thereby maintaining the stability of the money and the forex markets, enhancing the confidence of the investors. The IMF Deputy Managing Director also spoke highly of the fact that Vietnam has managed to remain high foreign capital inflows in spite of the unpredictable developments of the world market and the wide openness of the domestic economy, in controversy to the trends of foreign capital flowing out of the developing and emerging markets in recent time (as high as USD 13.9 billion estimated during the first 9 months of 2018). Today, Vietnam is one of the few countries that have managed to maintain a positive net capital inflow, while most of the developing economies are facing net capital outflows.
MH