S. Korea Money Supply Up 9.1%

The money supply in South Korea jumped 9.1% in August from a year earlier, the central bank said Wednesday.

The nation’s M2 totaled 2,485.6 trillion won ($2.19 trillion) in August, compared with 2,377.3 trillion won a year earlier, the Bank of Korea said in a statement. The money supply rose 0.7% on-month, the statement said, Yonhap reported.

Growth rate of the money supply has been on the decline since October 2015 as companies decreased domestic credit.

M2 is a measure of the money supply that counts the currency in circulation, including bank debentures and deposits with a maturity of less than two years, along with stock investments. It’s a key economic indicator closely monitored by the authorities.

Meanwhile, the number of employed people in Korea reached 26.84 million in September, marking the largest monthly employment growth since May, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea on Wednesday.

Government data showed that the unemployment rate hit 3.4% last month, down 0.2 percentage point from a year ago. The number of newly employed also marked an increase of 314,000 compared to September last year.

Korea’s employment rate last month also saw a 0.3 percentage point increase to 61.3% compared to last year.

On the same day the data was released, the Moon Jae-in government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea unveiled a five-year plan that included creating some 810,000 jobs in the public sector as part of the president’s prioritized pledges.

The roadmap has five categories, 10 main tasks and 100 policy measures that will cover how to construct jobs and infrastructure fit for the demands of the industries as well as ways to create more job opportunities in the private sector and improve working environments.