Deposit interest rates fall below 8.5%

Commercial banks have reduced their interest rates to below 8.5% for 12-month terms, except for one bank, indicating the sector is in a race to slash rates.

The highest interest rate of 8.5% for 12-month terms is being offered at GPBank, followed by ABBank with 8.3%, VietABank with 8.2%, VIB with 8.2%, PVComBank with 8.2%, OCB with 8.1%, and BaoVietBank with 8.1%.

HDBank and Bac A Bank have set rate at 7.9%, VPBank 7.8%, Sacombank 7.4%, and MBBank 7.3%.

State-controlled Agribank, VietinBank, BIDV, Vietcombank, or the “Big 4” lenders accounting for more than half of the economy’s credit, are offering lower interest rates of 6.8% for 12-month terms.

Since the end of 2022, deposit interest rates have fallen 2-2.5 percentage points for 12-month terms and more for six-month terms, signaling lower loan interest rates in the short and medium terms.

VNDirect Securities, a leading stock brokerage firm, anticipated average deposit interest rates to drop to 6.5-6.7% in 2023 due to low credit demand as a result of the economic slowdown and a gloomy real estate market. Other reasons include the government pushing public investment disbursements, while there remains room for the economy to reduce policy interest rates.

Credit growth slowed in the first months of 2023 due to a negative economic outlook, high interest rates, and challenges in the real estate and corporate bond sectors, the securities house noted.

Credit growth has yet to show any signs of recovery, so system liquidity remains relatively abundant, VNDirect added, expecting a slight further reduction in deposit interest rates in the future.

Since the beginning of 2023, average deposit interest rates for three-month terms have dropped by 100 basis points, while those for 12-month terms have fallen 0.8 percentage points, VNDirect added.

On the same page, economist Vo Tri Thanh expected the central bank to further cut policy interest rate given lower external pressure, the economy’s low demand, the banking sector’s strong liquidity, and the central bank's willingness to cut interest rates. Loan interest rates will move down in line with such developments, but with a delay, Thanh said.

Credit in the Vietnamese economy reached over VND12.3 quadrillion ($523.8 billion) in the first five months of this year, an increase of only 3.17% from the end of 2022, according to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).