Price should be published and transparent during epidemic

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Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dinh Trong Thinh, Senior Lecture of Academy of Finance

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dinh Trong Thinh, Senior Lecturer of the Academy of Finance, spoke with Customs News about this issue.

How do you assess the impact of the corona virus epidemic on Vietnam’s economy at present?

This corona virus epidemic has not only affected China but also the world economy, causing difficulties for Vietnam’s export to China. Vietnam’s exports to the world have faced difficulties due to the increase in price of raw materials. At the same time, investors across the world may have concerns about the epidemic and will invest in gold and other assets instead of production. This will make world trade even slower.

According to the latest statistics of the Department of Price Management, the Ministry of Finance, the CPI of January increased by 1.23 percent. Although this issue was predicted in advance and is still in administration scenarios, many people think it will cause difficulties for price management in the first quarter as well as in 2020. What do think about this?

To complete the final year plan of 2016-2020, prepare to enter a new period of 2021-2025 and create a premise for the whole period of 2021-2030, based on forecasts of the fluctuations of the world economy and financial - monetary market, the capabilities and conditions of Vietnam's economy, the National Assembly has approved 12 basic targets for 2020.

Accordingly, gross domestic product is hoped to increase by 6.8 percent, with CPI below 4 percent, total export turnover up 7 percent, the ratio of trade deficit over total export turnover less than 3 percent, and total social development investment of 33-34 percent of GDP.

To achieve these targets, first of all, it is necessary to maintain macroeconomic stability, control inflation, ensure large balances and create a foundation for rapid and sustainable development.

It is especially necessary to closely monitor fluctuations of the world economy and financial and monetary markets, take the initiative in managing and adjusting exchange rates flexibly and in accordance with the development of the economy, step by step stabilise and enhance the value of the VND.

In addition, there is a need to strengthen inspection and supervision of prices and markets, especially, for essential goods and services, to ensure price stability. We must monitor, manage and supervise fluctuations in the real estate market and stock market to take measures to timely adjust and prevent abnormal fluctuations that adversely affect the economy. It’s also important to restructure State budget revenues and expenditures, promote tax policy reform, restructure and enhance the efficiency of public spending, reduce the State budget deficit and sustainably reduce the proportion of public debt and external debt to GDP.

Other tasks are to review and perfect the legal system on price, speed up the development and adjustment of economic-technical norms to serve as a basis for determining goods and service prices for medical, educational and social services according to the plan, calculate correctly and fully implementation costs in prices and the roadmap for the equitisation of public service delivery units.

The corona virus epidemic is unpredictable and many factors are threatening the price and goods. To ensure stable prices and psychology of the people, what measures should be taken?

First of all, it is necessary to closely inspect price constituents for goods subject to price stabilisation, goods in the list of goods subject to price declaration, goods and services assessed by the State, prevent price adjustment and unreasonable price increase, define level and time to implement and avoid overlapping periods that may cause great fluctuations in the price level of the economy.

Goods procured from the State budget, national reserve goods, public goods and services must be checked for authenticity, completeness and accuracy. For public goods and services that can be bid for, procurement should be taken on a bid to ensure competitiveness, efficiency and fairness.

In the current period, the State needs to strengthen publicity and information on price administration and implement regulations on publicity and transparency of price information well, especially for goods subject to price stabilisation, goods in the list of goods subject to price declaration, goods and services assessed by the State, prevent expected inflation and false information causing confusion and bad impacts to the price of some items and price level of the economy.