Offshore investment fades for finance and insurance

Foreign investment in the finance and insurance sector has seen a decline of more than A$1.2 billion according to the Foreign Investment Review Board 2013-14 Annual Report.

During 2013-14, 22 proposals were approved in the finance and insurance sector compared to the 36 proposals approved in this sector in 2012-13. Proposed investment decreased from $2.9 billion to $1.7 billion.

The United States was the largest investor in the finance and insurance sector with $1.25 billion.
 
The report says approval was given for $167.4 billion of proposed investment in 2013-14, representing an increase of 23.4 per cent increase on the $135.7 billion approved in 2012-13.

In 2013-14, a total of 25,005 applications for foreign investment approval were considered, with 24,102 approved, three rejected, 719 withdrawn and 181 exempt as not subject to the Policy or the Act. The real estate sector had the lion's share of approvals, with 23,428 approvals in 2013‑14, almost twice the 12,025 approvals in 2012‑13.

The real estate sector was the largest destination by value, with approvals in 2013-14 of $74.6 billion (an increase of $22.7 billion from 2012-13).

For the first time, China ($27.7 billion) was the largest source country for approved investment during 2013-14, overtaking the United States ($17.5 billion).

 Other major source countries for approved investment proposals in 2013-14 were Canada ($15.4 billion), Malaysia ($7.2 billion) and Singapore ($7.1 billion).