Overseas remittances to Ho Chi Minh City in the first seven months reached 2.42 billion USD, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.2 percent.

Head of the State Bank of Vietnam's City branch, Nguyen Hoang Minh told the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that in July around 170 million USD was remitted to the City.

Minh saw the increase as a positive sign because the peak remittance season hadn't begun yet.

In the first six months, the remittance volume through the banking system in HCM City was mainly from Europe and the US.

Market observers in the City said that recipients of overseas remittances were getting less interested in securities, deposits and gold due to the low profit of 0.25 to 1 percent annually, which was a result of the Government's policy over the last two years to discourage people from hoarding the dollar.

To ensure a substantial recovery, recipients are likely to invest in the property market which the Government's housing packages are designed to support.

In 2013, about 4.8 billion USD was transferred to Vietnam through HCM City. Of this, 72 percent went into production and business, 21 percent into the real estate market and the remainder was sent to support relatives.

Last year, Vietnam was among the top 10 remittance recipients with 11 billion USD, and it is likely to stay robust this year, according to the World Bank's Migration and Development Brief released in April.-VNA