Central Bank gyrates kip within five per cent band

(KPL) The Central Bank pledged to further maintain the stability of the kip for the second half of 2009.so that it gyrates within the five per cent tolerable band against the greenback.
During the past five months the Central Bank maneuvered the kip to trade at a stable rate so that in spite of the global financial turmoil it only edged down by 0.59 per cent.
As it has been able to stabilize the value of the kip against other currencies the deposit and credit rates managed to claw upwards and reach higher levels.
This was said by the Governor of Central Bank, Mr Phouphet Khamphounvong during its two-day annual meeting in Vientiane on 18-1 9 June.
Two hundred people from line ministries, relevant agencies and state business banks attended this meeting.
The participants reviewed the work of the bank over the past one year they also took part in drafting its plan for the next six months of the fiscal year.
In 2008 the rate of inflation was 7.6 per cent and while this is considered to be within the comfort zone but it was the Central Bank that kept it from going further upwards by promoting the use of the kip for transactions in the country and by controlling the inflow of foreign currency.
Monetary deposits in banks to get interest rates rose sharply by 14.9 per cent in 2008 and for first five months of 2009 its increase was 10.5 per cent.
For 2008, credit loans shot up as much as 82% but it moderated to an increase of just 23 per cent for the first five months of 2009.
The bad debts of the past had been cleared and the new bad debts shrank to 1.7 per cent, a figure that is below the permissible level.