Banking & Finance

According to the Ministry of Finance, State budget revenue reached VND460.6 trillion ($17.68 billion) in the first quarter of this year and State budget expenditure VND351.3 trillion ($15.3 billion), for a surplus of VND109.3 trillion ($4.75 billion). Despite being “abundant”, the slow pace of budget spending on development investment is a “bottleneck” for economic recovery.

Only VND3.5 trillion ($153.2 million) worth of corporate bonds were issued in March, up slightly against February but down 85 per cent year-on-year. Real estate continued to lead, with nearly half of the issuance volume, followed by securities and banking. Nearly VND29.4 trillion ($1.3 billion) worth of corporate bonds were issued in the first quarter of the year.

According to the Vietnam Banks Association, non-cash payments are increasing and the QR code channel is posting the strongest growth, of up to 200 per cent, followed by payment via mobile phone. Banks want to allow non-authenticated payments on small items to further promote digital payments.

In its newly-released stock market outlook, KBSV forecasts that five industries will benefit the most from the recovery in Vietnam’s economy, which will be a positive for their stock prices over the remainder of 2022. The groups are retail; travel; banking; industrial park real estate; and production and export.

At a meeting on April 12, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha and Mr. Alfonso Garcia Mora, Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in charge of Asia-Pacific, agreed to expand cooperation in environmental protection and climate change response. The IFC is to provide long-term capital for enterprises’ green projects.

According to Ms. Ta Thanh Binh, Director of the Securities Market Development Department at the State Securities Commission of Vietnam (SSC), although the country’s stock market has been down slightly since March, it is still considered attractive and space remains for growth over the course of 2022. It also has many supporting factors, such as expectations of an upgrade to “Emerging Market” status and accelerated equitization and divestment by State-owned enterprises (SOEs).