(Reuters) – The amount of outstanding U.S. municipal bonds continued shrinking in the first quarter to $3.661 trillion from $3.671 trillion in the final quarter of 2013, Federal Reserve data released on Thursday showed.
Households, the backbone of the market, held $1.604 trillion bonds in the first quarter, compared to $1.626 trillion the quarter before and $1.676 trillion in the first quarter of 2013.
The Federal Reserve does not seasonally adjust the levels of outstanding debt, but does seasonally adjust the flow of the funds data. That data shows households shed $110.9 billion bonds in the first quarter. Banks, however, acquired $36.2 billion and mutual funds $28.8 billion in the quarter.
(Reporting By Lisa Lambert; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)