Vietnam’s overnight interest rates went from 2.15 percent February 20 to 4.14 percent on February 21, Vietnam Plus is reporting. The publication says this is connected to a spike in lending in December, however, that was over a month and a half ago (see credit growth table for 2023 here: C.bank grants Vietnam’s banks 15 percent credit growth limit for 2024).
In January, credit growth was actually negative 0.6 percent. Generally this would signal reduced demand for the local currency and cause interbank interest rates to fall. Conversely, this jump in interbank interest rates suggests demand has returned though its not clear whether this is a broad return to borrowing or perhaps one or only a handful of big borrowers–note that SBV lent one bank in Vietnam US$204 million made on February 20.