April 21 (Reuters) - Investors withdrew $5.2 billion from sustainable funds in the first quarter of the year as tough economic conditions weighed on sentiment, according to the data from investment research firm Morningstar.
The retreat marks the third quarter of outflows for such funds in the last one year.
BlackRock Inc's exchange-traded fund unit, iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF, alone lost $6.5 billion in the first quarter ending March 31.
Vanguard and BlackRock's other ESG funds still dominated the top flow-getters list, along with new entrant GMO Resource Transition, which was launched in February, but they were not enough to stem the net outflow.
In stark contrast to the continuous meltdown in sustainable funds, open-end funds and ETFs remained strong in the U.S., netting $17 billion of inflows in the quarter.
(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)
