Sixteen banks reduce lending interest rates by more than VND8.86 trillion

Four State-owned commercial banks continue to commit to sparing a support package of VND4 trillion to cut interest rates and all banking service fees for customers in localities implementing social distancing under Directive No.16/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister.

The Communications Department under the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), on the afternoon of September 29, informed that 16 commercial banks have agreed to lower the lending interest rates, effective from July 15 to the end of this year, with an estimated total interest reduction of more than VND20.61 trillion for customers.

From July 15 to August 31, 16 commercial banks, including Vietinbank, Vietcombank, Agribank, BIDV, MB, Lien Viet Post Bank, TPBank, VIB, ACB, Seabank, SHB, HDBank, MSB, VPBank, Techcombank, and Sacombank, which account for 75 percent of the total outstanding loans of the economy, had cut the lending interest rates as committed, with the total accumulated reduced interest of over VND8.86 trillion, reaching 43 percent of the plan.

The global gold price dropped sharply, causing the domestic SJC gold price to fall off the mark of VND57 million per tael on September 29. In Ho Chi Minh City, SJC gold was bought at VND56.35 million per tael and sold at VND56.95 million per tael at around 4.30 p.m., down VND100,000 per tael in buying rates and VND150,000 per tael in selling rates compared to the previous day.

At the same time, in Hanoi, PNJ Company listed SJC gold at VND56.6 million per tael for buying and VND57.5 million per tael for selling, down VND100,000 per tael in both buying and selling rates.

On the global market, bullion closed the trading session in New York on the night of September 28 at US$1,733.8 an ounce, down $15.9 an ounce, the lowest in the past two months.

On the Asian market in the morning of September 29 (Vietnam time), the spot gold price on the Kitco floor was at $1,740.2 an ounce, a decrease of $9.5 an ounce compared to the previous session and nearly $40 an ounce over last week.

The heavy metal plunged heavily mainly because the US dollar strengthened (the USD-Index stood at 93.75 points - the highest closing level in 2021), and the US bond yields highly increased. After conversion, this price is equivalent to about VND47.8 million per tael, about VND9.7 million per tael lower than the domestic gold price, the record gap between the SJC gold price and the global gold price in recent years.

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