Dropping point of grease

Việt Nam has seven State-owned banks, the biggest of which are Vietcombank, Vietinbank, Agribank and BIDV. — Photo Vietnam Finance Compiled by Thiên Lý According to statistics from the State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV), as of May, State-owned banks’ combined equity was VNĐ252.472 trillion (US$10.83 billion), down 0.86 per cent. Other lenders’ equity was VNĐ315.340 trillion ($13.5 billion) after rising by 8.5 per cent. Việt Nam has seven State-owned banks, the biggest of which are Vietcombank, Vietinbank, Agribank and BIDV. Analysts attributed the State-owned banks’ negative equity growth to the fact they had to support three banks that the central bank had to buy out: Construction Bank, GPBank and Oceanbank. In 2015, the SBV bought the banks and this year assigned the four biggest State-owned banks to restructure them to improve their liquidity and management. A senior banking expert pointed out another reason that … [Read more...] about State-owned banks suffer equity erosion

As the United States and China threaten each other with tit-for-tat tariffs, some say Beijing could use other weapons such as devaluing the yuan. (Photo: AFP/Fred Dufour) Donald Trump last month sparked fears of a potentially destabilising stand-off between the world's top two economies after threatening tariffs on Chinese imports, leading to warnings of tit-for-tat measures against hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods. But while the talk focuses on the levies, there are mutterings within Beijing that President Xi Jinping should turn his attention to other weapons at his disposal. Fan Gang, a member of the Chinese central bank's monetary policy committee, hinted Sunday Beijing could stop buying US Treasuries. "These assets need to be properly used, investing in US government bonds is not as good as investing in some real assets," he told an economic forum, according to the Caixin financial magazine. Those comments followed a report in the nationalist Global Times tabloid … [Read more...] about China’s US debt holdings: Double edged sword in trade war