HANOI - The overnight interbank rates have unexpectedly exceeded 8% a year over the past few days after being kept below or around 7% for several months now.
The overnight interbank rates accelerated to about 8.4% on September 8, 2010 from 7.5% on September 7.
According to the central State Bank of Vietnam, the rates were relatively stable at below 7% a year from early June till end-August, and hovered around 6.9% on August 31. However, the rates climbed to 7.15% on September 1 and stayed above 7.1% until last Monday.
Le Thanh Van, deputy manager of the investment department of Vietnam Bank for Investment and Development attributed the surge to a sudden increase in demand for short-term capital from commercial banks, especially small ones, to invest in shares and real estates, and to make loans to equity investors.
Bui Quy Thanh, head of the securities analysis department in Bao Minh Securities said, said the sudden surge of the overnight interbank rate contributed to the steep fall in the main VN-Index, which she more than 12 points, or 2.65%, to close at 450 points last Friday.
Equity investors feared the movement could indicate banks were running short of money and therefore could limit access to loans for equity investments, while the base rate could go up if the trend continued in the next sessions.
