Remittance flows to the East Asia and Pacific region were projected to have fallen by 11% in 2020 to $131 billion due to the adverse impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the World Bank, but one major Asian city is bucking the trend, says Reuters: Ho Chi Min City.
Vietnam’s bustling capital received remittances worth $6.1 billion last year, a record high and up 12% from 2019, they say. The biggest remitting country to Vietnam last year was the United States, followed by Australia and Canada, the report said.
Interestingly, the rise in remittances pushed Vietnam into the world’s number-two slot in terms of cryptocurrency use, after Nigeria. Twenty-one percent of respondents in Vietnam said they used or owned cryptocurrency in 2020.
This article was written by and originally published on Reuters.
