HO CHI MINH CITY, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City received overseas remittances of nearly 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of this year, seeing a year-on-year rise of roughly 20 percent.
Of the remittances, 60 percent came from the United States, and 19 percent from Europe, and most of them were poured into production and business, instead of real estates, stocks or savings as previously, the Ho Chi Minh City branch of the State Bank of Vietnam, said Friday.
Vietnam received approximately 13.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, up 16 percent against 2016, ranking the eighth in the world, according to the World Bank's Migration and Remittances.
Ho Chi Minh City remained the biggest recipient of remittances in Vietnam, with the inflows of 5.2 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 4.5 percent. Remittances to the city have annually increased by 8-10 percent in recent years.
The stable flows of remittances into Vietnam are mainly attributed to high numbers of overseas Vietnamese residing in foreign countries and people working abroad as guest workers, and its macroeconomic stability, flexible monetary policies and improved business environment, although the central bank has imposed the interest rate of zero percent on deposits in U.S. dollar, according to local experts.
