South Africa shifts to FDI outflows in third quarter, central bank says

Source: Reuters.

The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) said in its Quarterly Bulletin that the outflows were due to domestic subsidiaries of multinational companies paying back their loans to the parent companies.

For the first time in two years, portfolio investments recorded inflows of R45.6bn in July-September, from outflows of R20.1bn in the second quarter.

Nthabiseng Molemoeng, head of balance of payments at the Sarb, said the inflows were mainly due to an increase in foreign purchases of publicly traded government bonds following eight consecutive quarters of equity outflows.

"I think it was just a general decline in investor sentiment towards emerging markets," she said. "Now with this quarter the inflow is mainly from debt securities."