This was the 31st consecutive weekly inflow and took year-to-date total inflows to about $190bn and should this pace continue is set to break the full-year inflow record of 2010.
Meanwhile, net withdrawals of $7.6bn were taken from EPFR Global-tracked equity funds during the week, which was the second strongest weekly outflow this year.
One exception to the equity exodus were Japan equity funds, which saw their eighth consecutive week of inflows on the back of the Bank of Japan’s asset-purchase programme, which includes direct purchases of domestic ETFs.
Dividend equity funds also enjoyed continued investor demand, posting their 44th consecutive week of inflows.
The mainstay for investors looking for somewhere to hide was still US and German bond funds, which has helped drive yields down on 10-year government bonds in both countries to all-time lows.
Among US funds mortgage backed bond funds received a surge of inflows topping $1bn, while US municipal bond funds also had a strong week.
EPFR Global suggested these groups might have done so well because of market chatter about QE3 designed to support mortgage backed securities in the US, although this did not materialise.
"This trend of record inflows into bond funds is likely to continue until a response from European policymakers or the Federal Reserve or both," said Brad Durham, a managing director of EPFR Global.
"With nearly $1trn of inflows into bond funds since the beginning of 2009 it is not hard to understand how 10-year US Treasury yields last week managed to dip below 1.5% for the first time ever and German bund yields reached an all-time low last week. Investors are back to fearing their own shadows and aggressively buying bonds and gold," he concluded.
