FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German households, usually among Europe’s most financially conservative, bought into investment funds in the last three months of last year, just before the coronavirus pandemic caused markets to crash, Bundesbank data showed on Friday.
Financial markets rallied last autumn, wooing professional and retail investors alike. Then it left many of them nursing heavy losses when the outbreak swept the world in February.
Risk-averse Germans were not immune to the investment frenzy, increasing their holdings of fund shares by 12.5 billion euros. The total value of those positions was 680.3 billion euros at the end of last year.
Households also increased their equity holdings, albeit by just 3.4 billion euros, leaving them at 702.9 billion euros at the end of December.
Cash was still king in Germany, however. Currency and deposits rose by 48.6 billion euros to 2.590 trillion euros.
(Reporting By Francesco Canepa)
