Investors in some Western-European countries withdrew significant amounts, fearing the eurozone debt crisis.
The European mutual funds market ended the third quarter with net assets of EUR6,174 billion, 3.7% more than in the previous quarter.
The growth was largely driven by assets of equity funds and by the assets of bond funds, according to the statistics of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA).
Equity funds grew, helped by the growth of stock exchanges, while bond funds grew thanks to fresh amounts attracted from investors. In the third quarter of the year, bond funds attracted net inflows of EUR50 billion amid investor optimism over the bond buyback program made public by the Central European Bank last summer.
The countries where mutual funds attracted the largest amounts are Luxembourg and Ireland, with EUR24 billion and EUR18 billion respectively in the third quarter.
Romania ended the third quarter of the year with a positive performance. It had net inflows of EUR86 million, higher than the amounts attracted by more developed markets such as Poland and Turkey.
The performance of Romanian mutual funds is all the more remarkable since the Romanian market is one of the smallest in Europe by net assets. Romanian mutual funds have net assets of EUR1.869 billion, only Bulgarian funds have a lower wealth.
Romanian mutual funds are preparing to end the year with a better-than-expected performance.
In the first nine months of this year mutual funds’ net assets grew 19% in euros, the third largest growth rate in Europe after Malta’s 40% growth and Poland’s 21% rise.
The Romanian market exceeded the Slovenian one by asset in value in September. “The market of investment funds is the success story of the past few years. In 2008 Romania was at the bottom of the ranking, alongside Bulgaria. In the past four years assets have increased eight-fold and Romania is approaching Hungary and the Czech Republic. Within 3 or 4 years Romania will probably reach their levels,” Dragos Neacsu, president of the Association of Fund Managers in Romania recently said.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)