Global investors poured a record amount of cash into fixed-income funds for the week ending Wednesday, as the coronavirus outbreak intensified fears of a global growth slowdown.
Fixed-income mutual funds and exchange traded funds took in $23.6bn, the biggest weekly intake since 2001, according to EPFR Global. Inflows into US bond funds accounted for $15.4bn of the total. This included $10.3bn into US investment grade bonds.
Goldman Sachs analysts said the outbreak of the virus, which has now claimed more than 1,100 lives and infected at least 44,000 people, could shave an annualised 2 per cent from global gross domestic product growth in the first quarter, driven by “weaker growth in China, lower Chinese tourist spending, and lower Chinese goods imports”.