Sir, how does the Ministry of Finance assess the role of fiscal policy in "pulling" growth currently?
- GDP in the first 6 months of 2026 increased by 8.18%, which is a positive result in the context that the world economy is still volatile. To achieve the target for the whole year, growth in the remaining quarters must reach about 10-11%.
In that context, fiscal policy plays a particularly important role, both as a "support" to help the economy withstand external shocks, and as a direct "pulling force" for aggregate demand and as a "bait capital" to lead and activate investment from the private sector.
The role of fiscal policy in "pulling" growth is first of all reflected in public investment. The 2026 State budget capital investment plan assigned by the Prime Minister is over 1,013 million billion VND. By the end of May 31, 2026, the whole country had disbursed about 219.4 trillion VND, reaching 21.6% of the plan. Thus, there are nearly 794.1 trillion VND of public investment capital according to the assigned plan that need to be continued to be disbursed in the remaining months. If quickly included in strategic transport projects, highways, airports, seaports, energy, digital infrastructure, science and technology and inter-regional projects, public investment will not only directly increase aggregate demand, output and jobs but also reduce logistics costs, expand development space and create confidence for businesses to invest.
In addition, tax and fee policies continue to play a role in supporting purchasing power and reducing costs for businesses. In the first quarter of 2026, the budget has implemented exemptions, reductions, and extensions of about 43.6 trillion VND of taxes and fees; accumulated for 5 months, the scale of support has reached about 72.8 trillion VND. The policy of reducing 2% of value-added tax for many groups of goods and services continues to be implemented until the end of 2026, along with reducing many fees and charges. These policies help reduce prices of goods and services, stimulate consumption...
In the second quarter of 2026, in the face of the impacts of geopolitical conflicts, the Ministry of Finance has proposed reducing many types of taxes and fees to support the economy. How does the Deputy Minister assess the two-way impact of this policy on growth and the State budget?
- Faced with the context of world conflict, energy prices, especially oil and gas, have fluctuated sharply, gasoline supply has been interrupted, and world crude oil prices tend to increase. These impacts have greatly affected the supply and domestic gasoline and oil market, affecting the production and business activities of businesses and people's lives and incomes. To contribute to stabilizing the gasoline and oil market, ensuring national energy security, based on the proposal of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance has submitted to competent authorities to issue many solutions.
Adjusting tax regulations on gasoline and oil as well as exempting and reducing fees and charges in the transportation sector are fiscal measures applied in a special context. These solutions may initially reduce state budget revenue, but on the contrary, they will help stabilize the market before the "price storm", control inflation targets, and create an important foundation for economic growth.
To ensure state budget balance, the Government has been directing ministries, central agencies, and localities to focus on implementing tasks, solutions, and fiscal policies according to the Resolutions of the National Assembly, and at the same time, drastically implement state budget revenue collection, promote administrative procedure reform, digital transformation in tax management, strive to increase revenue, especially in key sectors and areas, revenue from land, real estate transfer, e-commerce activities and tight state budget expenditure management, strengthen spending savings (both investment and recurrent expenditures), proactively use contingency funds, reserves and other legal resources to spend on disaster prevention and control, epidemics and urgent tasks arising according to regulations, ensure budget balance at all levels, and maintain the deficit level within the scope of the National Assembly's estimate.
So how can fiscal policy both support growth and ensure macroeconomic safety and stability in the medium and long term, Deputy Minister?
- In the period 2026 - 2030, the work of mobilizing loan capital and managing public debt closely follows the direction in Conclusion No. 18 of the 2nd Central Conference, determined to successfully implement the Resolution of the 14th Party Congress, striving to achieve the "double-digit" growth target associated with macroeconomic stability, inflation control, and ensuring major balances of the economy.
In the coming period, the requirement is to continue to mobilize, allocate and use resources effectively for socio-economic development, especially for key and priority tasks, strategic infrastructure projects, with spillover effects, creating new growth momentum.
Thank you, Deputy Minister!
