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.
Remittance to Vietnam has kept rising for the past two decades, from more than $1.3 billion in 2000 to $16 billion last year (except the year of 2009 due to adverse impacts of the global financial crisis), which is 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.
According to a report on Vietnam News, the growth of Vietnam’s remittance flows slowed to 4.7 per cent in 2019 compared to a robust 8.6 per cent in 2018, the brief noted, adding that cyclical factors affecting the growth of remittance flows include economic growth in source countries, oil price 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.