South Korea’s money supply continued to rise in April amid an extended tightening policy mode, central bank data showed Friday.

The country’s M2, a key gauge of the money supply, stood at 4,013 trillion won (US$2.911 trillion) in April, up 0.4 percent from a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The M2 is a measure of the money supply that counts cash, demand deposits and other easily convertible financial instruments.

The central bank has been implementing a restrictive mode as it delivered seven consecutive hikes in borrowing costs from April 2022 to January 2023 to tame soaring inflation in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

Last month, the BOK held its key interest rate steady at 3.5 percent for the 11th straight time amid still-high inflation and a higher-than-expected growth estimate.

Source: Yonhap News Agency