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Money supply up for 6th month in November amid restrictive policy: BOK


SEOUL, South Korea’s money supply rose for the sixth consecutive month in November amid tightening policy, central bank data showed Wednesday.

The country’s M2, a key gauge of the money supply, stood at 3,894 trillion won (US$2.91 trillion) in November, up 0.9 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 its 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.

Earlier this month, the BOK held its key interest rate steady at 3.5 percent for the eighth straight time amid a slowdown in growth and moderating inflation.

Source: Yonhap News Agency