FUNDS under management in Guernsey fell by £1bn in the final quarter of last year.

The fall meant the island was looking after £200.4bn at the end of 2008, but also that the value for last year as a whole had gone up by £22.2bn – an increase of 12.5%.

GuernseyFinance chief executive Peter Niven (pictured) said global market conditions meant a reduction in the value of Guernsey’s business was inevitable in the fourth quarter.

‘We were fortunate that it was only a decrease of 0.5% and this demonstrates the resilience of our funds sector, but clearly there will be further falls until market confidence returns, which is unlikely to be before the end of 2009.’

However, the fall is much lower than that for the previous quarter ending 30 September, which saw total funds under management and administration fall by £5.8bn to £201.4bn.

Within the latest set of figures, Guernsey open-ended funds also fell in value by £2.1m. for the fourth quarter of last year to reach £63.6bn at the end of 2008 – a decrease of £5.6bn since the end of 2007.