South Korea’s money supply edged up 0.3 percent in January from the previous month on the rise of short-term money trusts, the central bank said Wednesday.

The country‘s M2, a narrow measure of the money supply, reached a seasonally adjusted 1,757.6 trillion won ($1.56 trillion) in January, compared with 1,752.1 trillion won the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea. Compared with one year earlier, the M2 also expanded 4.9 percent in the month.

Since January, the central bank began releasing seasonally adjusted figures on money supply data using month-on-month comparisons, in order to better gauge short-term economic situations, it said.

The month-to-month growth of M2 in January marked a moderate rebound from December when South Korea’s M2 stayed unchanged from a month earlier.

M2 covers currency in circulation and all types of deposits with a maturity of less than two years at lenders and non-banking financial institutions, excluding those held by insurers and brokerage houses.

“Money market deposit accounts and money trusts with less than two years of maturity drove the gain,” the BOK said in a statement.

Liquidity provided by financial institutions rose 0.4 percent in January from a month earlier, but gained 6.5 percent on-year.

Growth of South Korea‘s liquidity aggregate, the broadest measure of the money supply, ticked up 1.1 percent on-month in the first month of this year, the central bank said.

The liquidity aggregate covers currency in circulation and all types of deposits at financial institutions and state and corporate bonds.

The data was released one day ahead of the BOK monetary policy meeting. The central bank is widely expected to leave the key interest rate unchanged at 3.25 percent for the ninth straight month as rising oil prices raises inflation and growth worries.

(Yonhap News)