Investors Flee Municipal Bond Mutual Funds

Clients withdrew cash from municipal bond mutual funds at a clip not seen since October.

AMG Data Services reported that muni funds that report weekly figures suffered net outflows of $1.05 billion during the seven-day period ending Dec. 10. That's more than triple the pace of withdrawals in the previous week. Outflows had been less than $450 million a week since mid-October.

Clients withdrew 0.47% of the funds' assets during the week, according to the Arcata, Calif.-based fund tracker. Among all muni mutual funds - including those that report monthly - net outflow was $954.5 million, or 0.28% of muni funds' roughly $338 billion in assets.

Because of withdrawals and investment losses, muni funds have shrunk nearly 15% so far in the fourth quarter.

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