Canadians poured more than $2.5 billion into mutual funds in April traditionally a slow time for the fund industry.

The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) confirmed Tuesday that net new sales last month sales minus redemptions were $2.55 billion.

That’s almost five times the $537 million in net sales recorded in April 2006.

“Historically, there tends to be an industry wide slowdown in sales between March and April when investors take a breather after the RRSP season. However, this April we’ve seen sales that are $2 billion higher than the same period in either of the last two years,” IFIC vice president Pat Dunwoody said in a statement.

About 80 per cent of the net sales came in Canadian balanced funds, global balanced funds and foreign equity funds. All three categories saw about$1 billion in net sales.

On the flip side, Canadians were busy selling domestic equity fundsin April. Net redemptions that month came in at $620 million, even thoughthe TSX gained about two per cent.

Year-to-date, Canadians havepoured almost $20 billion into mutual funds, as this year’s RRSP seasonwas the best for industry sales in nine years.