The ceiling interest rate on non-term deposits and deposits of less than one month have been lowered from 1.0% to 0.8% per year while the cap on deposits with terms of one to less than six months has dropped 0.5 percentage point to 5.0%.
In the meantime, the maximum interest rates on deposits of six months or longer will be set by credit institutions themselves depending on supply and demand.
The central bank’s decision dated November 18 also slashes rates on loans to a number of priority sectors.
Specifically, interest rates on short-term loans to agriculture, supporting industries, small and medium-sized enterprises and high-tech firms will be cut from 6.5% to 6.0%.
The borrowing costs at microfinance organisations will also be capped at 7% per year, down from the previous rate of 7.5%.
On the same day, several local banks also announced cuts to their interest rates, with Vietcombank lowering its rates on current Vietnamese dong loans by 0.5 percentage point in the final two months of 2019.
The lender also slashed short-term lending rates to priority sectors to 5% and cut rates on other loans by 0.5 percentage points in order to help its corporate customers boost their business activity.
MSB also announced a decision to lower rates on short-term loans to enterprises and household businesses by 2 percentage points and slash rates on agricultural loans by 3.6 percentage points.
