The Vietnamese Government and National Assembly aim to achieve a gross domestic product growth of 6.6- 6.8 percent while maintaining inflation under 4 percent in 2019. To achieve the target, monetary policy is said to play a key role.

In the past year, the US dollar appreciation against strong currencies and the US- China trade war created huge pressure on currency markets. According to experts, the most crucial thing in 2019 is ensuring the strength of the Vietnamese dong in the context of a changing global economy. The interest rate rocketed sometimes at the end of 2018 at about 8 percent while interbank interest rates were kept at around 4.5 percent and the inflation was just round 3.45 percent. Experts said keeping a high interest rate is a tighter monetary policy signal, helping control inflation. The policy can be maintained in 2019. Besides exchange and interest rate tools, ensuring money supply is a key issue. In 2019, the State Bank of Vietnam has set a credit growth target of 14 percent, lower than previous years. With existing tools and policies, experts have acknowledged that the targets can be achievable to stabilise the economy.-VNA