Vietnam's central bank gov blames media for bank problems

State Bank of Vietnam governor Nguyen Van Binh blamed media for 50 percent of the banking sector’s problems.

“No one believed when I set certain macro-economic targets for this year,” Binh said.

He emphasized that he is satisfied with all of the results his monetary policies have achieved in 2012.

Earlier this year the governor promised that the inflation would be restricted to a single-digit figure, and lending interest rates would revolve around 10 percent.

“Some banks said I would be awarded an honorable medal if I could realize all those things.

“But all of those things are now real,” he said.

Binh added however that what displeases him is the fact that the media have little support and agreement over his policies.

“The press followed single incidents, and described them as huge problems.

In late November, Binh attracted national headlines by citing a famous economic theory in a wrong way.

After being criticized for SBV’s tightened monetary policies at a National Assembly’s (NA) Q&A session on November 13,

Binh, who holds a Phd in economics from Russia, cited the trilemma theory at a National Assembly’s session to try to expalin that SBV’s tightened monetary policies was not his fault.

The governor cited three factors as growth, inflation and the exchange rate as the "impossible trinity,” adding that it is impossible to simultaneously accomplish the three goals.

But in fact the theory refers to the three objectives: fixed exchange rate, national independence in monetary policy, and capital mobility. Inflation and growth are not included in the said theory, as later pointed out by

Nguyen Tri Dung, a member of the macroeconomic policy advising group under the NA Economic Committee of the National Assembly, who said Binh didn’t understand the theory.

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