Remittances to HCM City have reached $3.12 billion this year. — Photo saigondautu.com.vn

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) ─ Remittances to this city reached US$3.12 billion in the first nine months of this year.

This was a 4.71 per cent increase over the end of last year and a 11.6 per cent increase year over year, official data showed.

The remittances poured through local banks into production and business activities and the real estate sector are increasing, said Nguyen Hoang Minh, director of the State Bank of Viet Nam's (SBV) HCM City branch.

The funds for production and business activities, and real estate represented 74 per cent and 22 per cent of the total remittances to the city.

The remittances also comprise about 40 to 50 per cent of the total remittances to the country. They often tend to increase rapidly in the final months of the year, according to Minh.

The municipal People's Committee has also reported that the total deposits mobilised by local banks reached VND1,226 trillion, or $58.38 billion, in nine months. This is a 4.71 per cent increase over the end of last year and a 11.6 per cent increase year over year.

While outstanding loans totalled more than VND1,000 trillion ($47.62 billion), the loans for prioritised sectors (agriculture and rural development, exports, small and medium-sized enterprises, high-tech firms and support industries) hit VND136.24 trillion ($6.48 billion). The lending for prioritised areas increased by 7.9 per cent in nine months.

Minh noted that bad debts in the city reached VND58.94 trillion ($2.81 billion) at the end of July, representing 5.93 per cent of the total lending here and a 1.24 per cent increase from the figure at the end of 2013.

He said that bad loans increased significantly in June, as credit institutions began to restructure debts and establish risk provisional funds, following SBV's latest documents on debt classification, including Circular 09/2014/TT-NHNN and Circular 02/20/TT-NHNN. ─ VNS