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Foreign currency investment funds are growing for the second consecutive year

2025-10-10 07:37:30, Ekonomi CNA

The value of foreign currency investment funds is increasing for the second consecutive year. According to information from the Financial Supervisory Authority (AMF), during the first 6 months of 2025, the value of net assets of foreign currency funds increased by 7.9%.

Compared to the middle of last year, the net assets of foreign exchange investment funds have increased by 20.2%.

However, the specific weight that these funds occupy in relation to the total net assets of the market

investment funds has decreased to 8.8%, from 9.76% a year earlier. This indicates that investment funds in Lek have grown at a faster pace during the period.

Also, the assets of these funds still remain far from the levels before 2022, when the market suffered a shock due to the rapid increase in interest rates.

On the other hand, foreign currency investment funds are still negatively affected by the exchange rate. During the first half of this year, the Euro-Lek exchange rate continued to decline, albeit at a slower pace.

At the end of the first 6 months of this year, the Euro-Lek exchange rate suffered a further decline of 2.2% compared to the same period a year earlier.

The investment fund market is one of the few segments of the financial market that has experienced a decrease in the level of Euroization in recent years. The decline occurred especially during 2022, due to the rapid increase in interest rates and yields in international markets.

The increase in yields led to a deterioration in the performance of investment funds, causing some investors to decide to withdraw and liquidate their assets.

Such a trend was also observed in Lek investment funds, but in general for foreign currency funds the negative returns were deeper. In addition to the direct effect of negative returns on the decrease in asset value, last year's developments have discouraged new investments in foreign currency funds.

However, figures show that after 2024, foreign exchange funds are returning to growth, supported by the significant improvement in fund performance.

According to the latest data from management companies, foreign exchange investment funds are all having positive annual returns.

AFSA statistics show that thirteen investment funds are currently licensed in Albania, of which six operate in foreign currency, mainly in Euro. The vast majority of assets are held by the Raiffeisen Invest Euro fund, with approximately 77% of total funds in foreign currency at the end of June 2025.

Raiffeisen Invest Euro invests mainly in debt instruments of governments, foreign corporations and in foreign investment fund shares. Meanwhile, some of the foreign currency funds established in recent years have an investment policy that also includes shares of commercial companies./ Monitor.al