The latest monetary aggregate statistics from the central bank showed slowing growth last month from January, reflecting a slight decline in bank loans and investments, as well as a higher base effect from last year.
The M2 money supply indicator rose 4.92 percent last month from a year earlier, after the broadest measure of the nation’s monetary aggregates grew 5.22 percent the month before, the bank’s tallies showed.
M1B, a narrow measure of the money in circulation, which includes currency held by the public and passbook savings deposits, registered 2.84 percent growth last month from a year earlier, weaker than an increase of 3.86 percent in January, the bank said in a statement.
M2 includes M1B, time deposits, time savings deposits, foreign currency deposits and mutual funds.
Based on the bank’s data, outstanding loans and investments at Taiwan’s major financial institutions, including the postal savings system, were 5.15 percent higher than a year earlier at the end of last month, slower than January’s 5.22 percent increase.
Last year’s Lunar New Year holiday fell in February and this year’s holiday was in late January, it added.
For the first two months of the year, M2 money supply grew 5.07 percent compared with the same period last year, while M1B increased 3.35 percent year-on-year.
Both last month’s M2 growth rate and that for the first two months still fell within the central bank’s target range of between 2.5 and 6.5 percent, reflecting the nation’s stable liquidity.
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