HANOI, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's total loans surpassed 6,700 trillion Vietnamese dong (over 295 billion U.S. dollars) as of May 31, up 6.16 percent from the end of 2017, said a central bank official.

In the five-month period, annual lending interest rates were lowered by 0.5 percentage points for customers with good credit history, local newspaper Tuoi Tre (Youth) on Tuesday quoted director of the Monetary Policy Department under the State Bank of Vietnam Pham Thanh Ha as saying.

Local commercial banks currently list annual lending interest rates at 6-9 percent for short-term loans and 9-11 percent for long-term ones.

Vietnam targets a credit growth of 17 percent this year.