Vietnam public debts likely to fall to 40pct by 2020: IMF

Vietnam’s total public debts are likely to gradually reduce to around 40 percent of the gross domestic product by 2020, said Benedict Bingham, Hanoi-based senior resident representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Bingham made the forecast at a talk at the Economic University under the Hanoi National University on November 15.

The IMF representative urged the Vietnamese government to boost public savings, improve use of foreign loans, and encourage public-private partnership (PPP) model in infrastructure projects, in order to keep public debts under control.

He said macro instability, echoed by high inflation and long-lasting current account deficit, has pushed the country’s public debts to quicken to 52.6 percent of the GDP by end-2010, from around 40 percent in 2008.

Bingham also predicts Vietnam’s economy to annually grow between 7 percent and 8 percent in the next five years and the country’s income per capita to rise to nearly $2,000 by 2015.

Vietnam’s National Assembly has requested the government to curb the country’s total public debts to less than 60 percent of the GDP next year, to ensure the national financial security.

Chair of the NA’s Finance and Budget Committee Phung Quoc Hien said the government should tighten controls over state budget spending and G-bond issuances to avoid more pressure on public debts. – Saigon Times

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