The assets managed by resident and non-resident investment funds operating in Bulgaria increased by 2.6% year-on-year, reaching BGN 2.38 B as of end-March 2016, the country’s central bank said on Thursday.

Compared to end-2015, the assets were 7.6% higher.

The assets of resident investment funds amounted to BGN 799.8M as of end-March 2016 decreasing by 6.9% year-on-year.

Equity funds’ assets increased by 3.5% on the year, reaching BGN 284.7 M at end-March 2016, while bond funds’ assets dropped by 20.1% to BGN 356.1 M, the Bulgarian national bank (BNB) said in a statistical report on Thursday.

Assets denominated in Bulgarian levshad a share of 61.5% in resident investment funds’ assets, while euro-denominated assets were 30.6% of the total.

The geographical breakdown of the securities held by resident investment funds showed that investments in Bulgaria increased by 16.5% year-on-year, reaching BGN 410.1 M as of end-March 2016, while those invested in other EU countries decreased by 24.7% to BGN 114.6 M.

Non-resident investment funds’ liabilities to residents totalled BGN 1.59 B as of end March 2016, growing by 8.1% year-on-year.