Canadian mutual fund assets grew by more than $90 billion in 2006 to $660.2 billion, the highest annual asset growth ever experienced by the Canadian industry, according to a statistical review of 2006 released by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.

Balanced funds made up more than 56% of the increase in assets, IFIC reported, followed by foreign equity funds which represented 30%. “Canadians like their balanced funds, with their market share in total industry assets increasing to 26% in 2006 from 16% in 2001,” said Joanne De Laurentiis, IFIC’s president & CEO. “And, after four years of declining market share, foreign equity funds came back to take an 18% share of total market assets in 2006.”

Also, 2006 marked the third consecutive year that growth in industry assets stemmed from both sales and positive performance in the financial markets.

IFIC also reported that: sales in December 2006 were the strongest for that month in a decade, an indicator of the strength of the 2007 RRSP season; the estimated holding period for long-term funds rose slightly in 2006 to 6.8 years from 6.4 years in 2005.

Net assets for mutual funds throughout the world totalled US$19.4 trillion at the end of June 2006. Canada’s market share edged up to 2.72% in 2006 compared with 2.35% in 2001, IFIC said, noting that the rise was fuelled by a high Canadian dollar and a strong Canadian financial market.