Bond funds were the driving force behind the growth of global assets under management, which stood at $37.2 trillion (€33.3 trillion) at the end of August.
Lipper, which provides funds data, said that year-to-date most of the net new money went to bond funds, which accounted for $364.4 billion. This was followed by commodity funds and alternatives funds with $26.9 billion and $10.1 billion of inflows, respectively.
At the other end of the scale, equity funds registered outflows of $97.2 billion and mixed asset and money market funds saw outflows of $41.9 billion and $25.3 billion, respectively.
All asset types posted positive returns for the year-to-date, according to Lipper. Commodity funds performed the best, with a return of 9.6% – yet the asset class was the worst performer in August, with a loss of 1.7%.
Bond funds and mixed-asset funds returned 7.4% and 7.3%, respectively, for the year until the end of August.
The worse performing class this year and at odds with the amount of assets they have accumulated, are alternative funds, returning 1.2% so far.
Of the top ten global fund markets by assets under management, four are in Europe: the UK (which leads), followed by France, Switzerland and Germany.
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