Research and consultancy firm ETFGI has revealed that ETFs and ETPs listed globally have experienced net outflows of $4.05 billion in May, however year-to-date net inflows are still healthy at $141.04 billion.

ETFGI, which focuses on trends across ETFs and EFTPs, have released a report on the wider state of the industry. It states that this is the first month of net outflows into ETFs and ETPs worldwide since January 2014, and also reveals that assets invested in the ETF and ETP industry worldwide have decreased by 4.6 percent from $5.57 trillion at the end of April to $5.32 trillion.

The report also released statistics on the size of the industry. By the end of May 2019, there were 7,797 ETFs and ETPs from 415 providers across the industry worldwide, listed on 71 exchanges in 58 countries.

It also released new information on equity ETFs and ETPs listed globally. They suffered net outflows of $18.92 billion in May, reducing net inflows for 2019 to $52.14 billion. This is substantially less than the $116.54 billion in net inflows equity products had generated by the end of May 2018.

Meanwhile, fixed income ETFs and ETPs listed globally reported net inflows of $10.76 billion in May, bringing net inflows for 2019 to $79.39 billion, which is markedly larger than the $33.62 billion in net inflows fixed income products had attracted by the end of May 2018.

Substantial inflows can be attributed to the top 20 ETF's by net new assets. The net news assets collectively gathered $21.79 billion in May with the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV US) gathering $5.54 billion alone.

Deborah Fuhr, managing partner and founder of ETFGI said: “Markets appear to have returned to the uncertainty of 2018, after the US/China Trade war escalated further. In addition to that, Mr. Trump threatened higher tariffs on Mexican goods. The S&P 500 finished May down 6.4%, bringing year-to-date returns to 9.7%.”