Investment fund statistics
Euro area investment funds balance sheet
The legal requirements for investment fund statistics are laid down in Regulation ECB/2013/38 , which defines the statistical standards according to which investment funds must report information on their assets and liabilities to the NCBs. This Regulation is complemented by Guideline ECB/2021/12, which sets out the procedures to be followed by NCBs when reporting investment fund statistics to the ECB. These legal acts are complemented by a non-legally binding Manual on investment fund statistics, which further clarifies and illustrates the statistical requirements.
The data refer to the assets and liabilities of investment funds. In addition to outstanding amounts, transactions data are also available.
Euro area investment fund statistics relate to those EU Member States that had adopted the euro at the time covered by thestatistics. Harmonised data on outstanding amounts and transactions include Slovakia as of January 2009, Estonia as of January 2011, Latvia as of January 2014, Lithuania as of January 2015 and Croatia as of January 2023.
These investment fund statistics are available as from the reference period December 2008 and replace the non-harmonised euro area investment fund statistics that have been published by the ECB since January 2003. Those statistics are available for the reference periods 1998Q4 to 2009Q2. The coverage and definition of the new statistics differ from those of the previously published investment fund statistics. Therefore, a direct comparison of the new and old statistics is not always possible. The previously published investment fund statistics are available in the ECB Data Portal.
Outstanding amounts, or stock data, refer to the value of the assets and liabilities at the end of the reference period (month or quarter, either to the last working day or the last calendar day, depending on national practice).
Transactions, or flows data, refer to the net acquisition of a given type of asset during the period, or the net incurrence of a given type of liability. In the case of investment fund shares/units issued, the transactions provide an approximation of the investment funds’ net sales of shares to investors.
Changes in outstanding amounts between two periods can be due to transactions, price revaluations, exchange rate changes in the case of instruments denominated in currencies other than euro, or statistical reclassifications.