Overseas remittances to Ho Chi Minh City in the first six months of this year are estimated at 1.9 billion USD, down by almost 500 million USD against the same period last year.

According to the State Bank of Vietnam ’s HCM City branch, the amount of remittances via credit institutions saw a relatively strong fall while the money sent through economic institutions experienced an increase.

Experts say the decline is mainly attributed to the global economic downturn, the ‘frozen’ real estate market and the government’s policy to control the US dollar ceiling interest rate.

The remittances mainly come from the US, European nations, Australian and Canada along with Vietnam’s labour export markets, including Taiwan, the Republic of Korea and Japan.-VNA