In the first week of April, global equity markets struggled following announcements from the US Federal Reserve which made it clear no further quantitative easing would be put in place for the foreseeable future.
"Fund flows reflected this rise in risk aversion," according to EPFR Global’s latest report, "Commitments to high yield bond funds fell to their lowest level year-to-date and emerging markets local currency bond funds saw a nine-week inflow streak snapped."
The US was not the only place to provoke policy concerns among investors, with single country funds in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Korea all suffering as investors "cast a more critical eye over their governments and their actions," EPFR Global added.
But global emerging market funds still took in $1.2bn, their highest inflows for four weeks.
Overall, EPFR Global-tracked equity funds posted redemptions of $2bn for the week to 4 April, while bond funds absorbed $4.7bn (well below inflows seen in recent weeks into the asset class) and money market funds recorded outflows of $14.7bn.
