Vietnam may be forced to cut its 2012 growth target to as low as 5 percent from 6 percent after the economy expanded at the slowest pace since 2009 in the first quarter, two government advisers said. The full-year target could be cut to “about 5 to 5.5 percent,” Tran Hoang Ngan, a member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council, said by telephone today. “With first-quarter growth at only 4 percent, it [...]

State-owned Vietnam Post and Telecommunications group is seeking government permission to retain full ownership of mobile network operator MobiFone, saying that selling its stake in the company will hurt the group’s revenues. MobiFone accounted for more than 60 percent of total profits over the past five years and the company should not be privatized until 2015, news website VnExpress reported Thursday, citing a new restructuring plan prepared by the group. The group, also known as [...]

Many real estate companies are hopeful that the recent lifting of restrictions on home loans will help revive the sector, but they say the recovery will be slow. Le Hung, general director of Hoang Anh Housing Development, a subsidiary of Vietnam’s top real estate company Hoang Anh Gia Lai, said his company had planned to launch many new projects but was discouraged by the market slowdown. Market liquidity was weak and homebuyers could not access [...]

The State Bank of Vietnam says borrowing costs have started falling after it cut policy rates for the second time in less than one month. Eximbank has announced a credit fund of VND6 trillion that will be lent to exporters, small and medium companies and low-income homebuyers at 16.5 percent per year, the central bank said in a report Friday. State-owned Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, also known as BIDV, also cut their [...]

The Vietnamese government will raise the minimum monthly salary for state employees by 26 percent to VND1.05 million (US$50) on May 1, according to a new decree. The minimum salary will apply for employees in government organizations and one-member limited companies owned by the state. The previous rate, VND830,000, has been in place since last May. Vietnam’s inflation fell for a seventh consecutive month in March. Consumer prices, however, still rose 14.15 percent year-on-year in [...]

Vietnam’s economic growth would slow to 5.7 percent for 2012 before picking up to 6.2 percent next year, the Asian Development Bank said Wednesday, calling for structural reforms to secure stable growth. Average inflation could ease to just under double digits, providing policy settings are kept sufficiently firm, but then it is expected to quicken to 11.5 percent in 2013, the Manila-based lender forecast in its Asian Development Outlook 2012 report. The economy expanded 5.89 [...]

Foreign carriers are opening routes to Vietnam, which Vietnam authorities consider a good sign for the country’s aviation industry. While LOT Polish Airlines has canceled its operation to Hanoi due to low demand and Jetstar Airway is flying through Singapore instead of directly from Darwin to Vietnam, many carriers, especially those from Asia, are expanding their services to Vietnam, according to a Wednesday report by news website VnExpress. A representative of the Civil Aviation Administration [...]

Vietnam cut its interest rates for the second time in less than a month as easing inflation gives the central bank room to bolster economic growth. The State Bank of Vietnam will reduce the refinancing rate by 1 percentage point to 13 percent, and cut the discount rate by the same amount to 11 percent, effective on Wednesday April 11, it said in a statement on its website Tuesday. The central bank also lowered the [...]

Hedge fund Elliott Advisers LP dropped a UK lawsuit against Vietnam’s biggest shipbuilder, lawyers for the state-owned Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group said. The company, known as Vinashin, and its advisers “were informed by Elliott’s lawyers, that Elliott wanted to discontinue the court action,” Mayer Brown LLP, Vinashin’s lawyers, said Tuesday in an e-mail. “No reason was offered by Elliott to Vinashin for the discontinuance.” Elliott was suing for the face value on the investment, which [...]

National carrier Vietnam Airlines plans to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) no later than the end of next year, with 70-80 of its stake remaining with the state, a newspaper reported Friday. The plan is part of a larger restructuring roadmap for the carrier, which aims to become Southeast Asia’s third-biggest airline in 2015, according to Dau Tu, a newspaper published by the Ministry of Planning and Investment. The IPO is expected to raise [...]