By Staff Writer
Remittances for the first month of 2021 are down with the highest drop recorded from New Zealand, in the latest monthly update from the Central Bank on Visitors Earnings and Remittances.
The January 20201 report on the tourism sector and private remittances provide indicators of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the main foreign exchange earners for Samoa.
Tourist arrivals and earnings have remained at zero for the 10th straight months now since the closure of travel borders to safeguard against the pandemic spread.
Scheduled repatriation flights for returning Samoan citizens only are the only arrivals into the country.
Total private remittances recorded a drop of 14.0 percent (or $6.4 million) to $40.5 million when compared to the same month last year and was also 30.0 percent (or $17.0 million) lower than the previous month.
Primarily contributing to the overall decrease over the year were less funds received from New Zealand (down by $4.0 million), ‘Others’ (down by $3.0 million) and Australia (down by $1.4 million).
‘Hand carried cash’ recorded drops as well (down by $12.3 million), ‘Others’ (down by $1.5 million) and ‘Non- profit institutions serving households (NPISH), (down by $0.1 million).
The up side to this down trend is the total private remittances for the first seven months of 2020/21 were still higher by 9.5 percent (or $31.4 million) to $363.0 million compared to the same period last year.
Largely responsible for the overall increase were higher transfers from Australia (up by $24.5 million), New Zealand (up by $12.5 million) and American Samoa
January 2021(up by 11.0 million).
This increase is partially aided by the depreciation of the Samoan Tala against both the Australian dollar (by 3.6 percent) and New Zealand dollar (by 2.0 percent).
By recipient, total funds for ‘Family and Households’ rose by $94.5 million (to $323.8 million), which accounted for 89.2 percent of total remittances for the first seven month of FY2020/21.
The monthly share of remittances inflows received through Money Transfer Operators (MTO’s) edged up to 90.0 percent from 85.8 percent in January 2020 while those received directly through commercial banks fell to 10.0 percent from 14.2 percent last year.
The average monthly cost of sending NZD$200.00 to Samoa fell to 10.93 percent in January 2021 from 11.55 percent last year whereas the average cost of sending AUD$200.00 edged up to 9.34 percent from 8.77 percent over the year