Vietnamese public debt hits 56.7 percent of GDP

The figure will include government debt totalling 44.5 per cent of GDP and loans that it has guaranteed totalling 12.2 percent of GDP.

Foreign debt will total 42.2 percent of GDP.

The figures are revealed in government estimates tabled in the National Assembly. The report puts total tax revenue for the year at VND520 trillion, about US$27 billion, an increase of 12.7 per cent against the initial estimate and 17.6 per cent higher than 2009. The report says the extra revenue will enable the government to meet its fiscal obligations and reduce overspending to less than 6 percent - 0.2 per cent lower than planned.

But most of the deputies at yesterday's plenary budget session were less than pleased with overspending of 6 percent.

They want it reduced to less than 5 percent.

And Deputy Nguyen Minh Thuyet of northern-border Lang Son Province disagreed with the way in which the figure of 56.7 percent of GDP was calculated.

International practice would have had the money the banks and State-owned enterprises owe in the total, the deputy argued.

"Our public debt must be no less than 70 percent of the country's GDP based on that definition," he said.

He asked the government to provide a further explanation of the debt.

Deputies Do Thi Lan, of northern Quang Ninh Province, and Le Van Thanh, of Hai Phong City, asked the government for stronger measures to keep overspending under 5 percent, particularly its oversight of state-funded projects.