3.1. Solvency
An investigation on Vietnam’s public debt
solvency implies that, by the end of 2010, the
public debt-to-GDP, external debt to GDP, and
external public debt to GDP ratios were over
55%, 40%, and 30% respectively. It is hard to
say whether they went over safety levels, since
different research produced different warnings
for different countries. For example, Li et al
(2010) pointed out that Eastern European and
Central Asian countries were normally in
crises with their external debt to GDP ratio
surging to highs between 42% and 88%.
Meanwhile, low and lower middle income
countries fell into crises with a much lower
ratio. External and external public debt in
these economies before crises occurred
accounted for less than 40% of GDP. However,
it is noticeable that Vietnam’s solvency situation
has been deteriorating rapidly in recent
years. According to the MoF statistics, within
two years, from 2008 to 2010, its public debt
to GDP ratio rose by over 20 percentage
points, from 36.2% to 57.3%, while the external
public debt to GDP ratio also went up over
6 percentage points, from 25.1% to above
31.1%. The increasing trend clearly threatens
Vietnam’s financial safety and the country
needs to respond in a timely fashion.
In addition, Vietnam’s public debt to total
budget revenue ratio is also rising rapidly. In
particular, by the end of 2010, total public debt
was about double of the total budget revenue,
up from 1.6 times in 2008. Meanwhile, state
budget remains in deep deficit in the last few
years and there are no signs of improvement
in the near future. State budget projections
imply that the government will continue to
carry out expansionary fiscal policies with
annual budget deficit of approximately 5% of
GDP. As a consequence, the public debt to
GDP ratio will certainly not halt at the current
level of around 57%.