Five-month remittances to Vietnam’s biggest city drops 2% to $2.3bln on pandemic

Xuan Thinh Wednesday | 06/10/2020 13:03

In 2019, the total overseas remittances to the city hit $5.3 billion. Photo: bizlive.vn

Remittances sent to Ho Chi Minh City reached $2.3 billion in the past five months, down 1.9% year-on-year, said the State Bank of Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City Branch.

Remittances in 2020 is expected to fall sharply due to the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, remittances to the city reached $5.3 billion, SGGP news cited information from regulator.

Last year, the total overseas remittances to the city hit $5.3 billion.

Recent World Bank report predicts that global remittances will decrease by about 20% due to the impact of the pandemic, in which East Asia and the Pacific decreased by 13%, mainly due to a decline in cash flows from the US, the region's largest source of remittances.

However, the organization forecasts that remittances will recover by 2021 when the amount of remittances flowing into low-and middle-income countries will recover and increase by 5.6% to $470 billion.

Money transfer companies in the city said that overseas remittances in the first two quarters of this year dropped significantly, especially from labor export markets, namely Japan, Taiwan (China), and South Korea, and traditional markets, including the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia.

Source: SGGP News