Two countries in the Southeast Asia region stand among top destinations of remittance outflows from the U.S -- Philippines and Vietnam!
The top destinations for remittances from the U.S., which has led the world in remittance outflows for 35 years, are Mexico, China, India, the Philippines and Vietnam, even though experts warned last year that Vietnam could be losing out given U.S. President Donald Trump's anti-immigration policy and the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes at the time.
PHILIPPINES
The Philippines is the third largest remittance receiving nation in the world in 2017, according to a World Bank report Monday.
The country maintained its position with $33 billion (P1.72 trillion) of remittance inflows.
Remittances from more than 10 million overseas Filipino workers are the second largest source of foreign exchange for the Philippines, next to the earnings of the business process outsourcing sector.
Remittances contribute up to 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed there an estimated 2.2 million OFWs at any time during the period from April to September 2016.
VIETNAM
Vietnamese workers living abroad sent home $13.8 billion last year, keeping the country among the 10 biggest remittance beneficiaries
That’s equivalent to 6.7 percent Vietnam’s gross domestic product in 2017, showing that remittances continue to be an important income source for the country.
For Vietnam, over the past 25 years, the flow of overseas funds has increased around 100-fold, from $140 million in 1993 to approximately $13.4 billion in 2016, according to data released in May last year by the bank.
Data from the Pew Research Center said Vietnam got $11.8 billion in 2016, with the U.S. being the biggest source, accounting for more than half of the total sum, followed by Australia, Canada, Germany and France.
Official government data showed the number of Vietnamese workers that went to work abroad hit nearly 135,000 in 2017, up 6.7 percent against 2016, marking the fourth year in a row that the figure exceeded 100,000.
Source : VNEexpress.net and Philstar.com
