Remittance flows into Ho Chi Minh City in the first nine months of the year were estimated at around 3.8 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 7 percent.

According to Nguyen Hoang Minh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City branch, most of the remittances was invested in production and business instead of being poured into real estate, securities or savings.

Minh said remittances to the southern hub could reach 5 billion USD for the whole year.

The amount of remittances often depends on macroeconomic conditions and the situation of overseas workers, as well as services that attract remittances.

Vietnam’s macroeconomy has remained stable while the pressure of an increase in the exchange rate due to market psychology has been eliminated. Therefore, receivers of remittances tend to convert them into Vietnamese dong instead of holding foreign currencies.

As a result, the USD/VND exchange rate has been kept stable since the outset of the year despite fluctuations in the global market.

The World Bank said Vietnam is one of the top ten remittance recipients globally. The country as a whole received nearly 16 billion USD in remittances last year, one hundred times higher than in 1993. Remittances to Vietnam came from more than 4.5 million overseas Vietnamese together with a large number of Vietnamese migrant workers.

Ho Chi Minh City is among the biggest recipients of remittances in Vietnam. Remittances to the southern hub have increased by 8 to 10 percent in recent years.