RRSP season is off to a slightly weaker start this year for the mutual fund industry, according to new data from the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC).

The industry trade association reports that net sales for January came in at $5.36 billion, down slightly from $5.64 billion in the same month a year ago.

This year, long-term funds’ net sales were $5.52 billion and money market funds had net redemptions of $159.7 million in January. In the same month last year, stronger long-term net sales of $6.25 billion were offset by heftier money market redemptions of $608 million.

Balanced funds led the way in January 2015, with net sales of $4.4 billion, followed by equity fund net sales of $554.7 million, and bond funds, which recorded net sales of $142.8 million for the month.

In January 2014, balanced funds had net sales of $4.72 billion, equity funds generated $1.59 billion worth of sales, and bond funds suffered net redemptions of $567.0 million.

Total mutual fund assets under management (AUM) rose another 3.4% during the month to $1.18 trillion, up by $39 billion, IFIC also reports.

Industry AUM has increased by $168.3 billion, or 16.6%, over the past 12 months, it notes.

Data for this report is compiled from IFIC and other sources. Aggregate totals are provided by Investor Economics.