The latest data from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) indicates that publicly offered funds in the country paid out 1.71 trillion yuan in dividends as of the end of 2017.
CSRC data further indicates that equity funds posted annualised average returns of 16.5%, 8.8 percentage points ahead of averages gains in the SSE Composite Index over the same period.
The annualised average return of bond funds was 7.2%,4.5 percentage points ahead of rates for three-year fixed-term deposits.
CSRC spokesperson Gao Li (高莉) said that 2018 marked the 20th anniversary of publicly offered funds in China, and that they were a key wealth management tool for individual and households.
As of the end of 2017 China was host to 113 fund management companies, managing a total of 11.6 trillion yuan in assets.
The number of publicly offered fund products had risen to 4841, covering equity funds, mixed funds, bond funds, money market funds, commercial futures funds and ETF funds.
Value investment funds such as fund of fund funds have also become increasingly popular, due to the long-term stable returns they can provide to pension plans.
