HCMC receives $6.6B in remittances last year

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) in HCMC has stated that the global economic slowdown, rising inflation in many countries, and the impact of geopolitical issues are to blame for the drop in remittances pouring into Vietnam’s largest city.

HCMC has seen an annual increase in remittances of 7-10% over the past few years.

This growth is highly variable and is influenced by a number of factors, including macroeconomic conditions, the employment situation of Vietnamese overseas, and the availability of services designed to attract remittances.

The volume of remittances transferred to HCMC has decreased over the past two years due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which has also been impacted by geopolitical factors, especially the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

However, remittances still make up 33% of the city’s budget revenue.

Remittances are a key source of foreign currency revenue, alongside FDI inflows and foreign currency revenue from exports, which help to ensure foreign currency supply and demand, enhance national foreign exchange reserves, and lessen the pressure to boost the exchange rate against the greenback.

Remittances sent to Vietnam during the past decade crossed $10 billion every year.

Even though the country was hit hard by the pandemic in 2021, remittances that year still reached roughly $12.5 billion.

Remittances to Vietnam totaled $16.7 billion in 2019, $16 billion in 2018, and approximately $14 billion in 2017.

Even though there is no official data available at this time, the World Bank and the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development forecast that the total amount of remittances to Vietnam in 2022 would rise by around 4.4% from 2021, and 3.6-4.5% in 2023.