HANOI, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is forecast to rank ninth among the largest remittance beneficiaries in 2019 with an inflow of nearly 16.7 billion U.S. dollars, according to the World Bank's latest data.
The amount is slightly up from 16 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, and equivalent to 6.4 percent Vietnam's gross domestic product (GDP) this year, showing that remittances continue to be an important income source for the country, local daily VnEconomy cited the bank's data updated in October as reporting on Wednesday.
India is expected to top the 2019 ranking with over 82.2 billion U.S. dollars, or 2.8 percent of its GDP, followed by China with nearly 70.3 billion U.S. dollars, or 0.5 percent of its GDP.
Total remittance flows to low and middle income countries are projected to reach 551 billion U.S. dollars this year, 574 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 and 597 billion U.S. dollars by 2021, the World Bank said in its report.
Growth of remittance flows slows to 4.7 percent in 2019 compared to a robust 8.6 percent in 2018, affected by cyclical factors including economic growth in source countries, the price of oil, and variations in exchange rates.
The slowdown in the growth of remittances this year is sharp in all regions except the Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Sub-Saharan Africa. Remittances would increase moderately in South Asia (5.3 percent) and East Asia and Pacific (3.8 percent), read the report.
