Early this year, Vietnam’s management agencies predicted that remittances would fall sharply by 15-20 percent to US$5.8-6 billion due to the global economic recession. In fact, there was a slight fall in the flow by Vietnamese nationals abroad.
Over the past 10 months, remittances transferred through the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) reached US$1 billion, down 18 percent compared to the same period last year.
The Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) says that the amount of remittances this year did not decline. In the past three quarters, remittances hit nearly US$700 million and the figure is expected to rise to nearly US$1 billion by the year's end.
Pham Hong Hai, capital and foreign exchange director of HSBC Vietnam, says that despite a slight decline, this year’s remittances through HSBC still remain high.
According to the World Bank, Vietnam ranks 10th among countries which receive high overseas remittances. The country has more than 3 million Vietnamese people of whom many are residing in high-income countries like the US, France, Canada, and Australia. In addition, it also has over 500,000 guest workers in many countries and territories.
With policies to encourage overseas Vietnamese people to invest and buy houses in Vietnam and to strengthen labour export, remittances will rebound when the world economy recovers completely.