Remittances in 2012 reach US$ 9.5 billion The State Bank estimated that total remittance amount in 2012 stood at only US$ 9.2-9.5 billion, less than the expected figure of US$ 11 billion, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City branch of the State Bank Nguyen Hoang Minh said on January 4th. He also released that Ho Chi Minh City received some US$ 4.1 billion of remittances, of which 23 per cent was invested in property, 70 per cent in production and business and some 7 per cent was for household consumption. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief of the Overseas Labour Department of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said that remittances from Vietnamese guest workers mounted to US$ 1.8-2 billion. According to him, Vietnamese guest workers from Taiwan sent the largest amount of remittances and this was followed by Japan, Malaysia and South Korea, while remittances from Europe and the US contributed a modest sum to the total figure. There are some 4 million Vietnamese nationals and 500,000 guest workers in foreign countries and 80,000 guest workers are sent overseas to work per year; therefore, experts say that the amount of remittances remains stable in the middle term. However, experts also warn that as the State does not control the remittance inflow, a large amount of foreign currencies are sold in black markets, which may cause unwanted impacts on the financial market. Source: TBKT Translated by Thu Nguyen