Overseas remittances to southern city hit USD2.5 billion
Friday, 05/08/2016 16:40 (GMT+7)
Overseas remittances to Ho Chi Minh city were estimated to reach USD2.5 billion so far this year, a year-on-year rise of 4.16%, said Mr. Nguyen Hoang Minh, Deputy Director of the city-based State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).
Photo for illustration
He stresses that the remittances mainly flowed from the US and Europe with most of them being used for production, business and investment but not for saving, spending or investing in real estate and stock as before.
From 2003, with the stability of exchange rate, overseas remittances sold to banks made up a large proportion of 20%-35%, Minh said. In 2015 alone, the rate reached over 22% and this trend was maintained.
In the trend of increasing overseas remittances to the southern hub annually with an average of 10-12% between 2011 and 2015 and the warming real estate market, the city-based SBV forecast the remittances would reach USD5.7-5.8 billion in 2016, up 5.6% from last year.
According to the organ, the city received about USD5.5 billion of overseas remittances in 2015./.
BTA