South Africa’s foreign direct investment swung to inflows in the first quarter from outflows in the final quarter of last year as domestic private firms received equity and debt funding from foreign parent companies.

The central bank said on Thursday that the foreign direct investment inflows totalled 11.7 billion rand (825.85 million dollars) in the first three months of 2019.

The outflows were 8.2 billion rand in the previous quarter, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) said in its Quarterly Bulletin.

The country registered portfolio investment inflows of 29.2 billion rand from January to March from outflows of 33.9 billion rand in the prior quarter as foreigners acquisition of domestic debt securities exceeded net sales of local equities, the SARB said.

(Reuters/NAN)