The money supply M2, August 2008

The money supply amounted to NOK 1 465 billion at end-August, down from NOK 1 470 billion at end-July. The annual growth in money supply fell for the forth month in a row.

Declining growth for households

At end-August more than half (NOK 774 billion) of the broad monetary aggregate was owned by households. The twelve-month growth in household money supply fell from 8.1 per cent to 8.0 per cent during August. Households have been the main contributor to annual growth in money supply for eight consecutive months. The growth in household money supply was a little lower than the growth in household gross debt, which was 9.1 per cent to end-August, as shown by the credit indicator C2 . For more information on the financial position of households, see the financial accounts in the national accounts .

Slowdown also in non-financial enterprise money supply growth

Non-financial enterprise money supply amounted to NOK 502 billion at end-August. The twelve-month growth was 3.9 per cent, compared with a yearly growth of 4.2 per cent recorded in the previous month. The twelve-month growth rate has been decreasing since December 2006, when it reached 35.5 per cent. Apart from the last months, we must back to April 2005 to find yearly growth rates below 10 per cent. Non-financial enterprise money supply constituted 44 per cent of their gross domestic debt measured by the credit indicator C2 at end-August, while this share was higher than 50 per cent during most of 2007.

Composition of money supply

The broad monetary aggregate M2 amounted to NOK 1 465 billion at end-August, of which the major part (89 per cent) consisted of bank deposits. In comparison, notes and coins only accounted for 3 per cent of the broad money. The rest of the broad money consisted of shares in money market funds (7 per cent) and certificates of deposits (1 per cent).