"We have not had any business with investment banks and corporations that collapsed recently in the United States. At the moment, I do not yet see any impact that the US crisis would bring to Viet Nam’s banking sectors," Giau said speaking at a press briefing.

He said that yesterday saw a liquidity surplus of VND40 trillion (US$2.35 billion) on the monetary market, while it had swayed around VND30-35 trillion on a daily basis in recent days.

The country’s foreign currency reserves continued to increase by $1.6 billion compared to the figures in early 2007 and 82 per cent of that reserves are deposited at the US, British and French central banks and other international financial institutions, Giau said.

The governor added that the remainder of the reserve was being invested by highly-trusted commercial banks.

Giau said that the central bank would continue to practice its tightened monetary policy, but remained flexible while closely monitoring the global financial market and domestic commercial banks.

He also said that the central bank would interfere when necessary to protect the economy and the financial system’s liquidity.

Over the last nine months, the country’s GDP growth rate was estimated at 6.52 per cent, Deputy minister of finance Tran Xuan Ha told a monthly Government meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in the capital city yesterday.

"The 6.52 per cent increase in the growth of the gross domestic products (GDP) is lower than the same period last year, but a promising sign, thanks to the government’s successful measures to curb the rate of inflation and to stabilise the macro economy," Ha said.

In the period under review, the growth of the service sector stood at 7.23 per cent, slightly higher than the GDP growth rate.

Ha said in the context of fierce competition in the world market, Viet Nam’s export turnover stood at $48.6 billion, an increase of 39 per cent compared to the first nine months of 2007.

"10 products have gained export turnovers higher than $1 billion, including crude oil at $8.8 billion and textile and garments at $6.83 billion," said Ha.

The import surplus in September was $500 million – the lowest in nine months.

Estimates suggest that in 2008 Viet Nam will produce a total of 38.6 million tonnes of rice, a year-on-year increase of 2.6 million tonnes.

By September 15, the total state budget collection was over VND292 billion ($17.6 billion), hitting 90.5 per cent of the 2008 target.

Worthy of note, in September the consumer price index (CPI) increased 0.18 per cent compared to the previous month – the lowest over the past 17 months.

To achieve the target of 7 per cent increase for the 2008 GDP, the country must achieve a growth rate of 8.1 per cent in the remaining months of the year.

"This is a big challenge for the nation against the back drop of the world’s financial crisis," Ha said.

Regarding the challenges ahead in the remaining three months, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked the Government to continue its efforts to curb inflation, stabilise the macro economy, ensure social security and to maintain economic growth.

He asked the Ministry of Finance and the banking sector to help small and medium sized enterprises develop their production through preferential taxation and credit schemes.