Vietnamese abroad sent home 17.2 billion USD worth of remittances in 2020, making the country the third-largest remittance recipient in the East Asia and Pacific region, according to the Migration and Development Brief released earlier this week by the World Bank and the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD).

Vietnamese abroad sent 17.2 billion USD worth of remittance in 2020, making Viet Nam among top remittance recipients in the world. —(Photo: vneconomy.vn)

This represents a rise of nearly 3 per cent over 2019, a very positive result compared to the previous forecast in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the World Bank estimated that remittance flow to Viet Nam in the first 10 months of 2020 fell by 7 per cent.

Viet Nam came after China in remittances last year which received 59.5 billion USD, while the Philippines raked in 34.9 billion USD.

With remittances equivalent to 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), Vietnam was among the top 10 countries in the region by the share of GDP.

According to the World Bank, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, remittance flows remained resilient in 2020, registering a smaller decline than previously projected.

The main drivers for the steady flow included fiscal stimulus that resulted in better-than-expected economic conditions in host countries, a shift in flows from cash to digital and from informal to formal channels, and cyclical movements in oil prices and currency exchange rates, the brief wrote.

Source: VNA