HANOI: Vietnam’s central bank late on Thursday cut the interest rate it pays on banks’ reserves by 0.2-0.5 percentage points as part of its efforts to help the economy weather the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The rate the central bank pays for the dong-denominated compulsory deposits that commercial banks hold there was cut to 0.5%, and for non-compulsory deposits to 0%, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) said in a statement.
The rate paid for some state-owned financial institutions’ compulsory deposits at the central bank was cut to 0.8% a year, the SBV added.
Vietnam’s economic growth in the second quarter fell to 0.36%, its slowest in decades, due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The country reported 34 more coronavirus infections and two additional deaths on Thursday, bringing the total number of recorded cases to 747, with 10 fatalities. – Aug 6, 2020, Reuters
