Samoa received $53.5 million in total private remittances for September 2021, with a 6 per cent or $3.0 million increase compared to the same month last year.

This was highlighted in a report "Visitor Earnings & Remittances for September" issued by the Central Bank of Samoa. However, the $53.5 million is 7.1 per cent or $4.1 million lower than the previous month.

“This improvement over the year was accounted for by increases in funds received from Australia (up by $3.2 million), New Zealand (up by $1.7 million) and USA (up by $0.5 million),” read the report.

While in terms of recipients, increased funds were recorded for ‘Family and Households’ and ‘In Kind’ by $6.6 million and $0.1 million respectively. 

“In the first three months of financial year (FY) 2021/22, total remittances increased by 1.5 per cent (or $2.5 million) to $164.4 million over the same period of 2020/21.

“Accounting for this increase were gains in transfers from USA, New Zealand, Australia and American Samoa by $3.5 million, $2.2 million, $0.8 million and $0.5 million in that order.”

Partially responsible for this increase was the appreciation of the Samoan Tala against both US dollar (by 0.5 per cent) and Australian dollar (by 0.2 per cent) over last year.

“By recipients, total funds for ‘Family and Households’, ‘In Kind’ and ‘Hand carried cash’ all grew by $9.3 million, $2.5 million and $0.7 million respectively. 

“The monthly share of total remittances inflows received directly through Money Transfers operators (MTO’s) narrowed to 83.4 per cent from 89.9 per cent in September 2020 while those received directly through commercial banks edged up to 16.6 per cent from 10.1 per cent in the same month last year.

“The average monthly cost of sending NZD$200.00 to Samoa fell to 7.67 per cent from 9.64 per cent in September 2020 whereas the average cost of sending AUD$200.00 to Samoa also decreased to 5.96 per cent from 8.81 per cent over the year.”

The Central Bank also revealed that the prolonged closure of Samoa’s international borders for the eighteenth consecutive month for the safeguarding and protection of its people from the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, with the exception of repatriation flights for returning Samoan citizens only.

“This has continued to adversely affect the tourism industry and its related activities with no tourist arrivals and earnings recorded to date.”