Most of the money came from the US and Europe, according to Nguyen Hoang Minh, Vice Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Branch of the State Bank of Vietnam.
The remittances are being used for production and business activities and as investments, different from the previous purposes of making savings, spending on goods, buying estate properties and investing in stocks, he said.
Thanks to the stable foreign exchange rate, recipients sold between 20-35% of their remittances to the banks, the official reported.
Between 2011 and 2015, the remittances sent to the city saw an average rise of 10-12% annually.
Following the trend, the central bank’s HCMC branch official predicted that the money forwarded to the City in 2016 will hit US$5.7-5.8 billion, up 5.6% from a year earlier.
