Report to the Prime Minister on electricity prices; propose to reduce VAT by 2%

- Ministry of Industry and Trade reports to the Prime Minister on electricity price management

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has just sent a report to the Prime Minister with additional information on the proposal to adjust electricity prices every three months. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, adjusting electricity prices every three months will help update costs more fully; this is to promptly allocate electricity production and business costs, avoiding excessive accumulation of costs, which could affect EVN's financial balance.

- Ministry of Finance proposes to reduce VAT by 2% in the first half of next year

The Ministry of Finance is seeking opinions on reducing value-added tax (VAT) in the first 6 months of 2024. The Ministry of Finance proposes to continue considering reducing VAT by 2% in the first 6 months of 2024 as it has been applying to support businesses and people. Specifically: reducing VAT by 2% applied to groups of goods and services currently subject to a tax rate of 10% (to 8%) (according to Tuoi Tre).

- Prime Minister makes 3 major commitments to foreign investors

On the morning of October 16, in Hanoi, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a meeting with the foreign investment business community, with the theme "Accompanying and Developing". The Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam creates favorable conditions and builds a safe, transparent, and highly competitive investment and business environment so that the business community and investors, including foreign investors, can feel secure in making long-term investments in Vietnam. (See more)

- Governor: The handling of weak banks is in the final stage.

The Governor of the State Bank said that dealing with weak banks is difficult and takes time. "Under normal conditions, dealing with weak banks is difficult, but in the context of the difficult world and domestic economy in the middle of the term, the restructuring and handling of weak banks is in the final stages," the Governor said (according to Dan Tri).

- Profits of many large banks are forecast to plummet

SSI Research has made a preliminary assessment and estimated the business results of the third quarter of 2023 of a number of listed banks. Accordingly, the report highly appreciates the business results prospects of banks such as: ACB, VietinBank, HDBank, MBBank, Sacombank. Meanwhile, a number of banks are forecast to have negative profit growth, including BIDV, MSB, Techcombank, TPBank, VIB, VPBank. (See more)

- Enterprises abandon projects just because of land regulations

land long song 1 530.jpg — Enterprises abandon projects just because of land use regulations. (Photo: Hoang Ha)

Some businesses have had to abandon their projects due to land regulations, and hundreds of projects are stuck because they cannot be converted. According to experts, some clauses in Article 128 of the draft Land Law (amended) are not consistent with the policy of legal solutions for real estate projects. (See more)

- The largest bookstore chain in the South deposits 460 billion in the bank to earn interest

Ho Chi Minh City Book Distribution Joint Stock Company (Fahasa) has continuously increased its bank deposits in recent quarters, reaching a record high of VND460 billion, thereby earning more than VND17 billion in interest. (See more)

- Da Nang: Continuous heavy rain, vegetables are scarce, prices doubled

Continuous heavy rains since October 13 have caused deep flooding in many areas in Da Nang and Quang Nam. Many vegetable areas have been severely damaged, causing the price of green vegetables in the market to increase by one and a half to two times. Many types of vegetables are in short supply and not available for sale. (See more)

- Dragon fruit prices fall, farmers leave ripe fruit on trees unharvested

In Tien Giang, the price of dragon fruit is as low as the production cost, making farmers not interested in growing it. At harvest time, many people still leave the ripe fruit on the tree, not harvesting it (according to Lao Dong).

Oil prices on the world market cooled down today after rising sharply last week. Last week, Brent oil prices increased by 7.5%, while WTI oil prices increased by 5.9%.

The central exchange rate today increased by 12 VND. The USD price at commercial banks increased slightly. The world USD price cooled down.

On the stock market , on October 16, VN-Index reversed to decrease after 6 consecutive increasing sessions. VN-Index decreased by 13.31 points, down to 1,141.42 points. Securities and banking stocks decreased sharply. In particular, oil and gas stocks generally maintained a positive trend.

Gold prices on the world market today reversed to decrease despite experts predicting an increase due to geopolitical instability. SJC gold prices increased by 150,000 VND/tael in the morning for buying, decreased similarly for selling, but in the afternoon, they all decreased sharply.

Today, bank interest rates continue to decline below 6%/year, especially for terms under 18 months. Since the beginning of October, the number of reductions by banks has not been as high as in previous months, but the trend of interest rate reduction continues and is mainly concentrated in terms of 6-15 months.

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