S. Korea's money supply rises by record pace in Feb for the second month

[Source: Bank of Korea]

Money supply in South Korea rose by another record pace in February as companies and households resorted to cheap liquidity to overcome the lengthy Covid-19 crisis.

The country’s M2, a measure of money supply, came at 3,274.4 trillion won ($2.9 trillion) in February, up 1.3 percent or 41.8 trillion won from the previous month, according to the preliminary data released by the Bank of Korea on Tuesday. It is the fastest monthly gain since the data became available in December 2001, breaking the previous record in January.

Against a year earlier, M2 grew 10.7 percent, the steepest since March 2009. The yearly growth kept its rising momentum for three straight months.

M2 is a measure that shows how much money is being circulated in the market. It includes cash, demand deposits, savings deposits, two year or less deposits, and bank debentures. M2 is used to refer to flow of cash of short-term funds that can be easily converted into cash.

Funds held by companies rose 31.5 trillion won, the sharpest increase since December 2001. The central bank said companies stock up cash through money market funds, beneficiary certificates and trust accounts.

Households and non-profit organizations added 9.4 trillion won and other financial institutions 6.6 trillion won.

By product type, demand deposits gained 11 trillion won and savings deposits 9.2 trillion won due to the increase in mortgage loans. MMFs grew 6.3 trillion won.

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