State Bank of Vietnam’s Department of Forecasting and Statistics has said it expects credit growth in Vietnam to grow by 4.4 percent in the first quarter of the year, The Saigon Times is reporting.
This is after credit growth averaged just 3.38 percent per quarter last year. Notably, there was a big jump in loans issued in Q4 of 2023, however, with deposit interest rates continuing to fall in January, it looks a lot like this jump did not signify rising demand. Instead it looks like it was probably the result of aggressive marketing campaigns on the part of Vietnamese banks in order to reach targets set at the beginning of the year.
In this context, 4.4 percent seems very optimistic.