During the 1980s, informal aid in the form of packages and remittances from overseas Vietnamese played an important role in improving the living standards of many families, maintaining the domestic economy, and boosting the country's holdings of hard currency. Vietnamese customs officials in 1983 told a Western journalist that packages from overseas relatives--valued at some US$70 million annually in Western products--generated between US$10 million and US$20 million annually in customs revenues alone. Remittances from overseas Vietnamese were believed to provide an additional US$100 million or more in annual foreign exchange earnings.

Data as of December 1987