Total Global Fund Assets Dropped 10% in Six Months

From the end of September 2000 to the end of March 2001, total global fund assets fell over $1 trillion, or 9.4%, to $11.01 trillion, according results released today from the Investment Company Institute’s International Mutual Funds Survey, First Quarter 2001.

Over half of that decline was from U.S. funds, according to the ICI. Excluding those, total world assets fell nearly $500,000 or roughly 10% in the last two quarters. Of the 38 countries where data was available only four, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico, and the Philippines, saw assets increase.

Sweden experienced the largest relative drop in assets, with a decline of over $16 billion, or 20.3%. Japan was next with a drop of $73.4 billion, or 14.9%. For comparison, U.S. assets dropped $643 billion, a decrease by 8.8%.

Conversely, the number of open-end funds increased in all countries except six, according to the ICI. Hungary, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland all report having fewer funds at the end of March than at the end of last September. The U.S. added 213 funds, bringing its total to 8,240.

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