Overseas remittances sent to HCM City reaches $6.687 billion in nine months, up 40%

Despite the global economic downturn, the amount of money sent back to the city by Vietnamese expatriates increased steadily, according to Nguyen Duc Lenh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam branch in HCM City.

Overseas remittances to the Southern metropolis were $2.353 billion in the third quarter of this year, increasing 6.2 percent from the previous year. Remittances from Asia were for 53.1 percent of the total, up 19.8 percent from the previous quarter.

The rapid expansion of remittances has a beneficial influence on the economy in many ways, according to Nguyen, who added that this will be a valuable resource for the nation's and the city's socioeconomic development in general.

Meanwhile, it creates circumstances for individuals and remittance receivers to better and increase their quality of life while also boosting labor market development.

Remittances are recognized as one of the foreign currency sources that help to guarantee the relationship between supply and demand for foreign currency, as well as successfully supporting monetary, exchange rate, and foreign exchange market policies, he said. 

Every year, overseas money remitted to the city accounts for more than half of that remitted to all of Vietnam in total.

According to the World Bank's (WB) and the Organization for International Cooperation on Migrants' (KNOMAD) Report on Migration and Development, the flow of remittances to Vietnam is still relatively consistent in comparison to prior years.

The United States has the most Vietnamese immigrants among remittance recipients, followed by the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. Meanwhile, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan (China) have the greatest number of Vietnamese workers.

Total remittances into Vietnam increased by almost $1 billion in 2022 to around $19 billion, making the country one of the three largest receivers in Asia-Pacific and in the top ten globally in terms of remittances.