With the recent publication of the 2012 edition of the Investment Company Fact Book by the Investment Company Institute, I thought it was a good time to update our charts on trends in the fund industry around the globe.

Here’s what fund growth looked like over the 3 years from 2009 through 2011:

Growth – except in southern Europe

In total, global fund assets grew more than 25% over the 3-year period – but growth varied widely, with some countries actually experiencing major declines.

The negative growth was concentrated in southern Europe, as this chart shows. In this map, countries with the highest percentage growth in assets are shown in red. Those with the next-highest growth rates are dark orange. Growth rates continue to decline as colors move from light orange to yellow and then to green. Countries in green saw declines in assets. No data was available for countries in gray – most have very small fund markets. (Click on the map if you want to take a closer look.)

Percentage Growth in Fund Assets | 2009 – 2011

Excludes Romania.

Source:Investment Company Institute, 2012 Investment Company Fact Book

Overall, Europe experienced 15%+ growth during the period. Gains in the fund centers of Luxembourg and Ireland and in the major fund markets of the United Kingdom and Germany offset weakness elsewhere.

Fund asset growth was highly correlated with GDP growth. . .

Changes in fund assets appeared to be largely driven by changes in GDP, as shown in this graph, which plots 3-year fund asset growth against 3-year GDP growth. (Again, click to see details.)

. . . with some notable exceptions

Fund growth deviated rather significantly from GDP growth in a few places:

• On the negative side, China’s fund assets grew at only 1/3 of the rate of its GDP, perhaps not surprisingly given the strength of economic growth.
• On the positive side, both Ireland and the United Kingdom saw fund assets grow despite declines in GDP. Ireland’s UCITS industry gained market share during the period, while U.K. funds appeared to benefit from strong investor demand.
• Also on the positive side, Romania’s fund assets grew 633%! even though GDP was essentially flat. Romania was such an outlier that I’ve omitted it from the first 2 charts.

Brazil is a key market

This final map highlights the importance of the United States, Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Canada to the global fund market. It uses the same color scheme as the previous map but is based on changes in absolute dollar terms rather than percentages, so it highlights markets that are both large and growing.

Dollar Growth in Fund Assets | 2009 – 2011

Source:Investment Company Institute, 2012 Investment Company Fact Book