Vietnamese abroad sent 17.2 billion USD worth of remittance in 2020, making Vietnam among top remittance recipients in the world. —(Photo: vneconomy.vn) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) — Vietnamese abroad sent home 17.2 billion USD worth ofremittances in 2020, making the country the third-largest remittance recipientin the East Asia and Pacific region, according to the Migration andDevelopment Brief released earlier this week by the World Bank and the GlobalKnowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD).
This represents a riseof nearly 3 per cent over 2019, a very positive result compared to the previousforecast in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the World Bank estimatedthat remittance flow to Vietnam in the first 10 months of 2020 fell by 7 percent.
Vietnam came after Chinain remittances last year which received 59.5 billion USD, while the Philippinesraked in 34.9 billion USD.
With remittancesequivalent to 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), Vietnamwas among the top 10 countries in the region by the share of GDP.
According to the WorldBank, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, remittance flows remained resilient in2020, registering a smaller decline than previously projected.
Themain drivers for the steady flow included fiscal stimulus that resulted in better-than-expectedeconomic conditions in host countries, a shift in flows from cash to digitaland from informal to formal channels, and cyclical movements in oil prices andcurrency exchange rates, the brief wrote./.
