960412

Inflows on

securities deals

fell in Feb,

says Buba

FRANKFURT: The net inflow of foreign funds for securities transactions to Germany slowed markedly in February to 200 million marks compared with 20.1 billion marks in January, the Budesbank said on Friday.

"The decisive factor was the clearly lower level of foreigners buying German securities," the German central bank said in a statement.

The Bundesbank said 9.9 billion marks in February was spent by foreigners on German securities, down from 28.8 billion marks net in January, while Germans spent a net 9.7 billion marks on foreign securities, up from 8.7 billion in January.

For direct investments, the bank said net German investment abroad slipped to 2.2 billion marks in February from 4.3 billion marks in January, while net foreign investment in Germany fell to 100 million marks form 800 million in January.

The result was a net outflow of 2.2 billion marks in funds.

The Bundesbank also said credit lending fell sharply in February to a net outflow of 3.5 billion marks compared with a net inflow of 9.8 billion marks in January.-Reuter