Vietnam expects 20-percent decline in remittances on crisis (22/10)
06/08/2010 - 10 Lượt xem
“We’ve been watching the volume of overseas remittance transactions into Vietnam and estimate the amount will fall by a maximum of 20 percent for the whole year,” Nguyen Van Giau, governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, said by telephone Wednesday. Remittances totaled US$7.2 billion last year, he said.
The Southeast Asian nation’s $90 billion economy depends on grants and low-interest loans from agencies like the World Bank, revenue from exports, foreign investment in projects in Vietnam and cash sent home by Vietnamese overseas to pay for imports.
Vietnam is getting a $500 million loan from the Japanese government and plans to borrow as much as $1 billion from the World Bank this year to cover the decline, Giau said Tuesday after signing a loan agreement for $600 million with the Asian Development Bank.
The lending is to help Vietnam counter the adverse impact of the global economic crisis, according to a statement from the ADB Tuesday.
Source: Bloomberg, Thanhniennews
