The spike was fuelled by an increase investment in this form of savings in the first half of last year.

The situation calmed down in the second half of the year, when fears of a possible Chinese recession depressed global stock markets.

By April of last year assets had surpassed EUR 2.5bn, but the subsequent drop in share prices eroded some of the value.

In addition to returning gains, the pace of new investments in mutual funds outpaced payouts by EUR 141m, the highest since 2007.

A total of 429,734 Slovenians held investments in mutual funds last year, which is about 2% than the year before.

The best performing mutual finds in 2015 invested in European shares, especially companies with low capitalisation.