Japan's M2 money supply rises 2.7 % on year in October

Japan's benchmark money supply measure rose 2.7 percent from a year earlier in October as gauged by the M2 aggregate, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) said in a preliminary report on Thursday. According to the central bank's figures, the aggregate was unchanged from a month earlier and was in line with consensus forecasts, but remained some way off the all time high of 3.4 percent logged in October 2009. Japan's broader M3 money supply meanwhile rose 2.3 percent in the recording period from a year earlier and is also unchanged from the previous month, the central bank said. The BOJ continues to focus on both M2 and M3 data to gauge economic activity at the moment, as the bank has no long-term historical data on the M3 aggregate yet. Quasi-money -- cash equivalent and other assets that are easily convertible into cash -- dropped 0.2 percent in October from a year earlier, after remaining unchanged in September, the central bank's data also showed. Certificates of deposits meanwhile dropped 4.0 percent in October after slipping 3.5 percent in September and 0.6 percent in August, the BOJ also noted. Money supply or money stock, is the total amount of money available in an economy at a particular point in time and are usually defined as currency in circulation and demand deposits ( depositors' easily-accessed assets on the books of financial institutions). Leading economists are quick to note that there is a direct relation between long-term price inflation and money-supply growth, at least for rapid increases in the amount of money in the economy.