NA Vice Chair Le Duc Kien is worried that the CPI in reports may be lower than the real figures, which may be double the GDP growth rate.

Kien said that China, Laos, Cambodia, India and Turkey could maintain high GDP growth rates while successfully controlling inflation. He asked the government to analyze the situation and seek solutions to balance growth and inflation.

“To develop the economy and improve living standards, inflation and CPI must be lower than the GDP growth rate,” he emphasized.

The NA Vice Chair stressed that the imbalance between GDP growth and inflation is the challenge for Vietnam in 2011.

Le Quang Binh, Chair of the NA Committee for Defense and Security, asked the government to quickly announce measures to control inflation. “The prices for food and consumer goods are rocketing. The poor and average income earners feel like they had their pocket picked at the market,” Binh said.

Chair of the NA Committee for Social Affairs Truong Thi Mai said that the government should research and predict the CPI for 2011 right now to have timely measures.

The governor of the central bank, Nguyen Van Giau, said that to confront inflation, the bank suggested to the government two solutions: raise interest rates and compulsory reserves. However, in this situation, it is difficult to use the second. The bank chose the first measure: raise interest rates to attract money from the people. At the same time, enterprises have to carefully consider their production and business plans.

The Chief State Auditor Vuong Dinh Hue said that the increase of interest rates in 2010 benefited commercial banks but businesses complained a lot.

Chair of the NA Committee for Justice Le Thi Thu Ba also didn’t agree with the central bank that high interest rates would urge businesses to be more careful in business. She said that high interest rate will cause difficulties for businesses, especially small and medium enterprises.

Regarding the fluctuations in the foreign exchange market, Governor Giau of the State Bank of Vietnam explained that Vietnam suffered from trade deficit for a long time so foreign currency supply-demand is out of balance.

Chair of the NA Committee for Law Nguyen Van Thuan said that if the government doesn’t have timely and drastic measures, the imbalances in the monetary market will be dangerous because the people who are saving money will buy gold or USD.

“Why the growth rate is always high but people’s living standards doesn’t grow at the same pace?” This is the question of many constituents for NA deputies.

Source: Vietnamnet