Remittances to HCM City hit 3.25 billion

Overseas Vietnamese remittances to Ho Chi Minh City in the first nine months of the year hit 3.25 billion USD, according to the HCM City branch of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).

The city has continuously been one of the top localities nationwide receiving the biggest volumes of remittances, accounting for 40-45 percent of the total in previous years. This year’s rate is expected to exceed 50 percent.

According to the central bank, the recent favourable adjustment of exchange rate, the recovery of local businesses and the warming real estate market are among reasons for this year’s high rate.

The central bank also attributed the increasing trend to a number of the Government’s policies as well as programmes offered by commercial banks.

The amount of inward remittances to the city in 2015 is expected to hit 5.5 billion USD.

Vietnamese living abroad remitted over 5 billion USD to Ho Chi Minh City last year, 4.2 percent higher than in 2013, according to city's Committee for Overseas Vietnamese.

Between 1993 and 2014, Vietnam received total remittances of about 96.66 billion USD, with an average remittance of 4.4 billion USD per year, accounting for 6.8 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) over the period.

Remittances into Vietnam have increased about 22.4 percent annually in the past two decades, with an exception in 1997 and 2009 when economies in the world faced financial crisis.-VNA