Noteworthy stories of the week: Freight charge falls by 40 percent; the number of foreign travelers soars by 36 times; some commercial banks are granted more credit room for 2023; banks slashed deposit interest rates.

Analysts say bank shares will face difficulties in the first half of the year because of the poor performance of the real estate market, the export growth slowdown, and high interest rates. But changes will occur in the second half of the year.

Many enterprises complain that they cannot access the 2 percent interest rate subsidy package, and banks are not keen on the program because of complicated procedures.

Commercial banks report that their credit is growing well and loans are provided to production and business projects, but businesses say that they cannot get loans.

Monetary and fiscal policies have been tightened to fight inflation in Vietnam (though it is among the lowest in the world), instead of aiming to recover production and boost growth, which is needed after several years of pandemic.

With the internal strength of the currency and the central bank's flexible management, the VND is expected to depreciate by a maximum of 3% in 2022.

The first half of the year saw interest rates edging up 0.5-1 percentage point against the end of last year. Liquidity in the banking system was blamed for interest rate hikes.

According to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), by the beginning of July, the whole economy's credit reached VND11.4 quadrillion, up 9.35 percent, while it only increased by about 6 percent in the same period last year.

Several commercial banks reported profits higher than VND10 trillion for the first half of the year.

In the last half of 2022, banks may ease loan conditions so that more customers could access credit, given the positive economic outlook and their improving financial capacity.

The expiration of Circular 14 on debt rescheduling and interest rates reduction in late June is likely to expose banks to higher levels of non-performing loans (NPLs), yet insiders say it is unnecessary to extend it.

A commercial bank owned by a businessman that once had a startup in Eastern Europe has decided to invest in a new business as bank share prices have fallen.

A majority of credit institutions (CIs) are optimistic about their business performance in Q3 2022, the State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV)’s latest survey on business trends of credit institutions showed.

SBV will continue to keep interest rates unchanged in order to sustain macro-economic stability and control inflation, in contrast with the ongoing trend adopted by central banks of many countries worldwide, according to economic experts.

The draft circular amending several articles of Circular 39 prescribing lending transactions of credit institutions and/or foreign bank branches has raised concern about the congestion of capital flow into the real estate sector and high inflation.

This year, commercial banks have so far revised down many times their deposit and lending rates. However, lending rates are thought to be high. Why are these rates difficult to be further slashed?

State Bank Vietnam (SBV) Governor Le Minh Hung said at a conference on reviewing socio-economic development in the first half of the year that SBV has adjusted the 2020 credit growth rate limits of some banks.

Commercial banks have slashed the deposit interest rates by 0.25-0.5 percent per annum as credit growth continues to be sluggish.

If large businesses cannot pay their debts, they may put pressure on banks to lower requirements for loans.