The flow of remittances into Ho Chi Minh City reached US$6.1 billion in 2020, representing a sharp increase of 12% compared to the same period from last year, according to Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of State Bank Ho Chi Minh City Branch.

Vietnam was still among the world's leading remittance recipients in 2020.

Most notably, the figure is approximately US$600 million higher than originally forecast by financial institutions.

According to the latest estimates published in the World Bank (WB)’s Migration and Development Brief late last year, remittances to Vietnam were estimated to have dropped by over 7% to US$15.7 billion, equivalent to 5.8% of GDP.

Despite this decline, Vietnam was still among the world's leading remittance recipients last year, ranking in ninth place. Indeed, the country still ranks third in East Asia and the Pacific regions in terms of remittance volume, only behind China and the Philippines.

In line with this, the WB anticipate that remittance flows to low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are projected to fall by 8% in 2021 due to the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.

Following the rise of remittances sent to HCM City, experts have stated their belief that this increase can be put down to overseas Vietnamese sending money home in an effort to support their relatives.