EMU M3 money supply grows, but less than forecast

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | December 30 2009 4:22 AM

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - The Euro-Zone M3 money supply for November was grew by 0.2% on the year, under forecasts of a 0.4%, yet higher than the 1.8% reported in both October and September.

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The September-to-November three-month average was was also slightly disappointing at 0.6%, compared to the 0.9% expected by the market.

Despite emerging from recession in the 3Q, the recovery of the Euro-Zone's banking sector is still sluggish.

According to the ecPulse.com analysis team, Notwithstanding the remarkable improvement witnessed by the euro zone in the third quarter, banks are still unable to return to the pre-crisis lending rates, ever since the financial tsunami caused several banks to suffer from illiquidity and impaired balances, due to the write downs and bad loans.

The euro's major pairs have not been affected by the ECB data. At the moment of writing, the EUR/USD is trading in the 1.4344 range and the EUR/GBP in the 0.9033 range.

The M3 is the European Central Bank's measure of money supply which calculates all currency in circulation, bank deposits, repurchase agreements, debt securities up to 2 years and the value of money market shares. It is considered as an important indicator of inflation.

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