Investors flock to bond funds to lock in yields
More than 600 billion of inflows in record year
Corporate debt and passive ETFs shine

LONDON, Dec 17 Reuters Investors have poured a record 600 billion into global bond funds this year, taking advantage of some of the highest yields in decades ahead of an uncertain 2025.

Dwindling inflation has finally allowed central banks to lower interest rates, pushing investors to lock in the relatively high yields available and finally delivering the year of the bond after 250 billion left fixedincome funds in 2022.

The story is income, said Vasiliki Pachatouridi, head of EMEA iShares fixed income strategy at BlackRock. We are seeing the income being put back into fixed income. We haven39;t seen these levels of yields in almost 20 years.

Bond yields tend to fall, and prices rise, as central banks reduce shortterm borrowing costs.

Although returns on the ICE BofA global bond index have been middling at around 2 this year, the yield on offer topped 4.5 late last year, the most since 2008.

As of midDecember, 617 billion had flowed into developed and emerging market bond funds, according to financial data provider EPFR, topping 202139;s 500 billion and putting 2024 on track to be a record year.

Stocks, meanwhile, have drawn 670 billion of inflows as indexes in the U.S. and Europe scale new heights. Cash equivalent money market funds, which boast high yields and little risk, have fared the best, pulling in more than 1 trillion….