Vietnam's central bank yesterday said it would raise benchmark interest rates for the first time since December 2005, battling double-digit inflation that has sparked popular anger and labor unrest.
Aiming to cool bank lending, the State Bank of Vietnam will tomorrow raise the base rate used by commercial banks to calculate loans from 8.25 percent to 8.75 percent, a statement on the bank's Web site said.
The State Bank of Vietnam will also raise the refinancing rate, at which the central bank lends to commercial banks, from 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent and the discount rate from 4.5 percent to 6.0 percent, the statement said.
"It's a step in the right direction," said Jonathan Pincus, the UN Development Program chief economist in Vietnam.
"Many economists have been saying we think the economy is overheating and that an interest rate move would be warranted to encourage savings and slow down the growth of credit, which many see as the main driver of inflation," he said.
The IMF last year urged Vietnam to limit credit growth and the government has set a goal of keeping annual inflation below GDP growth, which hit nearly 8.5 percent last year.
Spiralling food and consumer prices -- driven up by a cash influx amid Vietnam's rapid economic growth -- have hit the poor the hardest and fueled a surge in labor strikes demanding higher wages.
This month, the second month of double-digit inflation, thousands of workers have gone on strike at scores of foreign owned plants such as South Korean and Taiwanese textile and footwear factories near Ho Chi Minh City.
The General Statistics Office estimated that consumer prices rose 14.1 percent this month from a year earlier, driven up by food and construction material costs ahead of the Lunar New Year, or Tet.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
PETITIONS: A Democratic Progressive Party official quoted President William Lai as saying that civil society groups are organizing the recall drives at the grassroots level Some civil society groups yesterday announced that they have collected enough signatures to pass the first-stage threshold to initiate a recall vote against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators in 18 constituencies nationwide, saying that they would submit the signatures to the Central Election Commission (CEC) today. They also said that they expected to pass the threshold in eight more constituencies in the coming days, meaning the number of KMT legislators facing a recall vote could reach 26. The groups set up stations to collect signatures at local marketplaces and busy commercial districts. The legislators their petition drives target include Fu