LSEG Lipper has released its European fund flow report for May 2023.
The key findings include:
• Bond funds (+EUR13.3 billion) were the best-selling asset type overall for the month and for the year 2023 so far (+EUR77.5 billion).
• Long-term mutual products (-EUR2.7 billion) posted estimated net outflows for May 2023 while this product category enjoyed inflows (+EUR35.1 billion) over the course of the first five months of the year.
• The overall fund flows for mutual funds and ETFs in Europe in May amounted to estimated net outflows (-EUR1.6 billion), while the European fund industry enjoyed overall inflows (+EUR46.9 billion) for the year 2023 so far.
• Money Market USD (+EUR5.6 billion) was the best-selling Lipper Global Classification for the month, while Equity Global (+EUR27.6 billion) was the best-selling Lipper Global Classification for the year 2023 so far.
• BlackRock was the best-selling fund promoter in Europe for May (+EUR13.0 billion), as well as for the first five months of 2023 (+EUR35.8 billion).
Detlef Glow, Head of EMEA Research at LSEG Lipper, comments: “It was somewhat surprising to see that the European fund industry faced slight outflows for May. These outflows occurred in an unstable market environment in which some asset classes showed positive results, while others performed negatively over the course of the month. The market sentiment was still driven by hopes that central banks, especially the US Federal Reserve, may have reached the last phase of their fight against high inflation rates and may, therefore, start to keep interest rates at least stable quite soon. Some investors already expect that there might be room for decreasing interest rates later this year. Nevertheless, there are still some concerns about geopolitical tensions, and the normalisation of the disrupted delivery chains, as well as a still possible recession in the U.S. and other major economies around the globe. These fears are raised by inverted yield curves which are seen as an early indicator for a possible recession.”
