Remittances to HCM City, which routinely accounts for the highest amount in the country, have topped US$1 billion already this year.

Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV)’s HCM City office, said 58 per cent of the amount came from the US and 22 per cent from Europe.

Remittances by Vietnamese guest workers abroad have not increased by much this year, he said.

Remittances to the city last year fell to $5 billion from $5.5 billion in 2015.

Last year more than 72 per cent of the remittances were invested in business, 21.8 per cent went into real estate and the rest to remitters’ families for their use.

According to the SBV’s HCM City office, last year the city accounted for 57 per cent of all remittances to Viet Nam, rising sharply from the 45-47 per cent that was the norm earlier. — VNS