LONDON, (Reuters) – British-based equity funds received a record 14.2 Billion Pounds ($19.3B) in 2021 inflows, Calastone, a funds network, said Thursday. This was due to investors who rushed in for central bank and government stimulus in the pandemic.

Global funds attracted record amounts of 13.4 billion pounds, and emerging market funds attracted record levels of 2.2 billion. Most investors placed their money in these funds.

Calastone explained that there was only a temporary dip in flow due to the Omicron coronavirus COVID-19 variant.

Calastone’s head of global markets, Edward Glyn said that investors had paused in November to assess the potential impact of Omicron waves of COVID-19. However, they have cautiously concluded that their impact would be less severe.

Calastone data revealed that British-focused funds received 1.1 billion pounds last year in outflows.

Glyn stated that investors are more inclined to seek out other options because of economic wobbles during the fourth quarter and political instability, rising interest rate, Brexit chaos, renewed Covid restrictions in certain parts of the country, and increasing volatility.

Calastone began collecting data in Jan 2015. It says more than two thirds of British funds flow through its network monthly.

($1 = 0.7366 pounds)