Private remittances for April drop by $3.5 million

The private remittances for April 2020 recorded a drop of 8.7 per cent or $3.5 million to $36.7 million when compared to the same month last year and was 21.6 percent or $10.1 million lower than the previous month.   

This was highlighted in a report called “Visitor earnings and remittances report for April 2020” issued by Central Bank of Samoa on 28^th of May 2020.

The report stated that the reduction in private remittances was accounted for by the decreases in funds from ‘others’ was down $5.0 million, New Zealand was down $1.6 million and Australia was down by $1.4 million whereas by recipient.

The reductions were also recorded for ‘Hand carried cash’ was down by $3.9 million, and Non -profit institutions serving households N.P.I.S.H. was down by $2.0 million and ‘In Kind’ was down by $0.07 million.

However, total private remittances for the first ten months of 2019/20 grew by 0.9 percent or $4.1 million to $453.4 million over the same period of 2018/19.

By country, increases were recorded for New Zealand was up $16.0 million and American Samoa was up $4.1 million.

The increase for American Samoa is partially aided by the 3.1 per cent depreciation of the Samoa Tala against the US dollar. 

In terms of recipients, total funds for ‘Family and Households’, ‘In Kind’ and ‘others’ all rose by $16.1 million, $3.0 million and $0.7 million respectively.     

The share of remittance inflows received through Money Transfer Operators (M.T.O.’s) recorded a slight improvement of 82.8 per cent from 82.6 per cent in April 2019 while those received directly through commercial banks fell to 17.2 per cent from 17.4 per cent in the same month last year.   

The average monthly cost for sending NZD $200.00 to Samoa contracted to 11.12 per cent from 12.50 per cent while the average cost of sending AUD $200.00 fell to 6.19 per cent from 7.81 per cent.