Foreign direct investment inflows to South Africa shrank to almost nothing in the first quarter of 2023, while the outflow of portfolio investments picked up pace, the central bank said in its latest Quarterly Bulletin.

The Quarterly Bulletin (QB), published on Thursday, said that: "South Africa's direct investment liabilities recorded an inflow of only R0.5-billion (or R500-million) in the first quarter of 2023 following a revised inflow of R64-billion in the fourth quarter of 2022."

"Direct investment liabilities" basically refers to foreign direct investment, or FDI. It's perhaps worth noting the use of the word "only" by the South African Reserve Bank, which is typically clinical in its comments. But hey, R500-million - about $26-million - in total FDI inflows is not much in one three-month period, especially when the previous quarter's total was 128 times larger.

The SA Reserve Bank noted in the QB that "... non-resident parent companies granted loans to domestic subsidiaries. This was countered by the sale of some shares by a non-resident parent company following the listing of its domestic subsidiary in the food products sector on the JSE Limited (JSE)".

So it seems, perhaps, this was a one-off case linked to this transaction. But clearly, no large foreign direct investments were made in the period to counter that.

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