The central bank says that South Africa will switch to FDI outflows in the third quarter

South Africa’s central bank reported Friday that the country’s third-quarter foreign direct investment outflows totaled 3.2 billion rand ($179.87 million), while its second-quarter inflows totaled 16.6 billion.

According to the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) Quarterly Bulletin, the outflows were caused by domestic subsidiaries of multinational corporations repaying their parent companies’ loans.

In July-September, portfolio investments saw inflows of 45.6 billion rand, following outflows of 20.1 billion rand in the second quarter, for the first time in two years.

After eight straight quarters of stock outflows, Nthabiseng Molemoeng, head of balance of payments at the SARB, stated that the inflows were mostly caused by a rise in foreign purchases of publicly traded government bonds.

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

($1 is equivalent to 17.7908 rand).