Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung underscored that ministries and sectors must firmly move towards the targets set from the beginning of the year, including a GDP growth rate of 6.2 percent and an inflation rate of around 5 percent.

He chaired a meeting on January 22 with ministries and sectors to seek ideas for macro-economic execution and management. The meeting was the first in the year implementing the Prime Minister’s Decision 1317 pertaining to the reform of coordination mechanism in macro-economic execution and management.

According to the PM, positive signs were recorded in all aspects of the macro economy in January. However, the plunging oil price that was lower than the rate submitted to the National Assembly and continues developing unpredictably, is, however, posing fresh requirements to management agencies.

To that end, the State Bank of Vietnam should be proactive in regulating interest rates and credit growth while ensuring no adjustments are made to budget collection and spending even when oil price goes down below 40 USD per barrel.

Petroleum price needs to be regulated with regard to regional prices in order to combat cross-border smuggling. The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport and other ministries and sector are required to meet to seek how to reduce travel cost before the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday.

The PM asked the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group to keep a close eye on the global crude oil price while overseeing crude production to avoid losses.

He agreed in principle the adjustment of electricity price in line with market rules and will issue a conclusion after the Tet holiday after reviewing related plans and assessments provided by concerned ministries and sectors.

At the conference, he instructed the macro-economy working group to pay heed to economic impacts from the country’s joining of many free trade agreements and the formation of an ASEAN economic community, the country’s retail sale system, public debts, and changes to several public service fees.

VNA