National Assembly highlights measures for economic growth
National Assembly highlights measures for economic growth
The Government report on socio-economic development last year and the first four months of this year showed important results and key solutions to realise the targets for 2012, yet it did not comprehensively reflect the "real health" of the economy so as to work out "effective treatments".
This was a common opinion of almost all National Assembly deputies at the discussion groups yesterday.
Basically, the deputies agreed with the Government report and appreciated its efforts in macro-economic management in the face of the current global economic crisis,however they claimed that the report assessment was rather "rosy".
Some said the appraisal was too general and that the solutions were neither practical nor specific. The macro-economy was unstable with risks, economic growth quality was not sustainable, and competitiveness was still low.
According to the NA members, the target of limiting inflation below double digits was possible to reach, but it was not easy to attain the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 6-6.5 per cent for this year.
Tran Hoang Ngan, a representative from HCM City said with the current level of inflation, the Government should sharply reduce the deposit interest rate to 10 per cent and the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) should take drastic measures to reduce the rate to 10 per cent.
Pham Huy Hung, a deputy from Ha Noi and chairman of Vietinbank affirmed the interest rate of commercial loans at 15 per cent was rather high. He said Vietinbank had made great efforts to reduce the rate to 14 per cent, whereas some others still offered the 17 per cent rate, partly due to inappropriate management of the SBV.
"The top priority to be resolved at this moment is helping enterprises retain production, ignite consumption, deal with inventory, generate jobs and stabilise the residents' lives. Thus, it required an appropriate policy to harmonise inflation with GDP growth," he added.
CPI in May
The national consumer price index (CPI) in May showed a month-on-month increase of 0.18 per cent and a year-on-year rise of 8.34 per cent, the General Statistics Office said yesterday.
In the first five months of this year, CPI reflected a 13.3 per cent increase over the same period last year.
Nguyen Duc Thang, head of the office's CPI department said: "The increase is due to the impact of oil prices rising twice in March and April with high growth rates, whereas the oil price decrease in early May was small."
Thus, transportation costs sharply rose by 1.32 per cent out of 11 major items which were used to calculate the CPI, including beverages, tobacco, garments, footwear, home appliances, medicine and health care services.
Particularly, prices of home appliances were up 0.57 per cent, medicine and health care services went up 0.33 per cent, and garment, footwear, and hats increased 0.58 per cent.
The price hike of oil, coupled with the holiday from April 30 to May 1, have also pushed up the prices of food and beverages by 0.66 per cent. Besides, culture and entertainment prices rose 0.63 per cent.
The Government has increased salaries up 26 per cent, thus making a growth rate of 3.09 per cent on prices of other goods and services, Thang said.
However, CPI in May has been curbed by a downturn of some commodities. In particular, a fall of 7.38 per cent in the price of gas pulled the price of housing and building materials down by 1 per cent.
"Meanwhile, the prices of rice and food continue to slide, down 0.26 per cent and 0.54 per cent respectively, due to oversupply. This has contributed to the low growth rate of the CPI," he said.
In fact, the CPI in May was the lowest May in the past eight years, according to the office.
The gold price dropped 2.17 per cent against the April price and decreased 5.6 per cent compared with last December.
In May, the US dollar price kept stable and only inched up 0.06 per cent against last month and down 1 per cent in comparison with last December
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