Money supply

Money supply ("monetary aggregates", "money stock"), a macroeconomic concept, is the quantity of money available within the economy to purchase goods, services, and securities.

Scope

Because (in principle) money is anything that can be used in settlement of a debt, there are varying measures of money supply. The narrowest (ie. more restrictive) measures count only those forms of money held for immediate transactions.

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Broader measures include money held as a store of value. Different measures of money have different technical definitions. The most common measures are named M0, M1, M2, and M3 (from narrow to broadly defined). In the United States, as defined by the Federal Reserve System, they are as follows:

Related Topics:
United States - Federal Reserve System

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• M0: The total of all coins and paper cash in circulation. (ie Currency)
• M1: M0 + the amount in checking or demand deposit accounts
• M2: M1 + other various savings account types, money market accounts, and certificate of deposit accounts (CDs) of under $100,000.
• M3: M2 + all other CDs, deposits of eurodollars and repurchase agreements.