HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Banks in Ho Chi Minh Cityare focusing on measures to mitigate the difficulties faced by businesses dueto the COVID-19 pandemic and help them get back to health, a State Bank ofVietnam official has said.

Nguyen Hoang Minh, Deputy Director of the SBV’s HCM City Branch,said the central bank is working with local authorities, the HCM City Union ofBusiness Associations and other agencies to ease funding difficulties faced bybusinesses.

The SBV and the city authorities had organised a programme toconnect banks with enterprises and business households to enable the latter toget loans at low interest rates, he said.

By the end of August outstanding loans under the programmehad reached 289 trillion VND (12.45 billion USD), with 75,164 loans given, hesaid.

Loans to enterprises in the export processing zones andindustrial parks had increased by 12.7 percent as of the end of July to 180.58trillion VND (7.78 billion USD), he said.

Besides extending loan repayment schedules, many banks havealso launched preferential credit packages for corporate customers.

For instance, Viet Capital Bank has launched severalpreferential credit packages for SMEs worth a total of 6 trillion VND.

HDBank also has a preferential loan package that offers a creditlimit of up to 2 billion VND at interest rates of 8.6 percent and maximum tenorof 60 months.

Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank has deployed aprogramme for microbusinesses with flexible policies.

Asked whether loan interest rates would continue to decreaseto support businesses during the peak business season at the end of the year,Minh said after the SBV cut the interest rate cap for a third time this year,banks had reduced their deposit rates for six months to less than 4 percent.

Lending interest rates still have room to decrease, but maybenot sharply since banks have already gradually cut them to a low level toassist customers affected by the pandemic, according to Minh.

“A decrease in interest rates will stimulate credit growth inthe remaining months of 2020. This is also the peak business season of theyear, so credit demand will increase compared to other months of the year.

“The banking sector will provide enough capital for businessesas well as the economy.”/.