--BOE: UK prov adj Dec M4 money + 0.7% on Nov; +8.2% on yr
--BOE: UK provisional adj Dec M4 lending +8.2 bln stlg
By BridgeNews
London--Jan. 19--Annual growth in seasonally adjusted U.K. M4 broad money supply in December was pretty much in line with expectations, coming in up 8.2% on the year compared with analysts' predictions of an 8.3% increase. M4 rose more sharply than expected on the month, however, climbing 0.7% against an anticipated 0.5%. Adjusted M4 bank lending was up 8.2 billion sterling, substantially above the expected 7.1 billion.
* * * The rise of 8.2% in M4 on the year in December maintained the trend of a slowdown in annual M4 growth in the latter months of 2000. M4 growth slipped from 9.2% on the year in September to 8.7% in October and to 8.4% in November.
The year-on-year comparisons in December M4, unlike M0 narrow money comparisons, should not have been substantially impacted by millennium effects, as the flow of funds into banks' cash-tills ahead of the millennium was not captured in the M4 data.