Foreign investment soars

Photo: Contributed

Statistics Canada says foreign investment in Canadian securities totalled $24.0 billion in July, led by a record acquisition of Canadian bonds.

The total for the month reversed the sale of $858 million in Canadian securities by foreign investors in June.

Statistics Canada says non-resident investment in Canadian bonds totalled $23.8 billion in July, boosted by new issues of private corporate bonds in foreign markets.

Foreign investors also bought $8.0 billion of federal government bonds and $2.9 billion of provincial government bonds.

Non-resident investors sold $1.5 billion in Canadian money market instruments and increased equity investments by $1.6 billion in July.

Meanwhile, Canadian investors sold $1.8 billion in foreign securities in July as they reduced their holdings in foreign equities by $2.9 billion in July, but acquired $1.1 billion in foreign debt securities.