Money supply grows in February amid increased savings, corporate loans

The Bank of Korea /Yonhap

Korea's money supply grew 0.6 percent month-on-month in February driven by increased savings and corporate loans, central bank data showed Tuesday.

The country's M2, a key gauge of the money supply, stood at 3,662.6 trillion won ($2.96 trillion) on average in February, up 21.8 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

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

Contributing to the February rise were increased savings amid rising interest rates, along with a gain in corporate loans.

Banks have raised interest rates on savings in line with the central bank's recent series of rate hikes aimed at taming inflation. (Yonhap)