Remittances sent to Ho Chi Minh City falls 2% to $1.8bln in first four months

Bich Phuong Wednesday | 05/06/2020 14:17

An employee of a bank counts US dollar notes at a branch in Hanoi. Photo by Reuters/Kham.

Ho Chi Minh City received $1.8 billion remittances in the first four months of this year, down 2% from a year ago, according to the State Bank of Vietnam’s HCMC branch.

Money sent to Vietnam is forecast to fall sharply this year due to the impact of COVID-19.

World Bank predicts global remittances to decline sharply in 2020 by about 20 percent due to the economic impacts of the pandemic. Vietnam, the ninth highest remittance recipient, has felt the impacts.

Remittances is projected to slump by about 13% in East Asia and Pacific down because of falling capital inflows from the US, its largest source of remittances. Vietnam was the third-largest recipient of remittances in this region.

Last year, Ho Chi Minh city received about $5.3 billion remittances while the whole country received $17 billion, making Vietnam the world’s ninth biggest remittance beneficiary.

The country received $13.8 billion in 2017 and $15.9 billion in 2018.

Remittances to Vietnam have been increasing for the last two decades, starting at a mere $1.3 billion in 2000, VnExpress cited data from World Bank.

In 2021, the World Bank estimates that remittances to low and middle-income countries will recover and rise by 5.6 percent to $470 billion.

The outlook for remittance remains as uncertain to the impact of COVID-19 on the outlook for global growth and on the measures to restrain the spread of the disease.

► Global remittances projected to fall 20% this year on coronavirus pandemic