SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Money supply growth in South Korea hit an 18-month high in July on continued rise of corporate lending, central bank data showed Wednesday.
The M2, called broad money, rose 6.7 percent in July from a year earlier, marking the fastest increase since January last year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
Household debt growth slowed down on the government's measures to control speculative investment in the real estate market, but corporate lending kept rising amid the near-record-low borrowing costs.
The BOK refrained from altering the benchmark rate since the bank raised it to the current level of 1.50 percent in November last year from an all-time low of 1.25 percent.
The M1, dubbed narrow money, grew 4.8 percent in July from a year earlier.
The M1 refers to currency in circulation, demand deposits and transferable savings deposits equivalent to cash. The M2 adds money market funds, time deposits and financial products that mature in less than two years to M1.
Liquidity of financial institutions, called Lf, increased 7.1 percent in the cited period. The year-over-year expansion of liquidity aggregate, the broadest measure of money supply, was 6.2 percent.
The Lf includes financial products with a maturity of more than two years and liquidity at insurers and brokerages along with M2. The liquidity aggregate adds state and corporate bonds to the Lf.
