--BOE: UK prov adj Apr M4 money + 0.3% on Mar; +7.9% on yr
--BOE: UK provisional adj Apr M4 lending +1.4 bln stlg
--UK provisional Apr M4 data weaker than forecast
--BOE says UK M4 lending weakest since May 1999
London, May 21 (BridgeNews) - Seasonally adjusted U.K. M4 broad money supply came in weaker than expected in April, rising a monthly 0.3% and 7.9% on the year. Analysts had, on average, forecast that M4 would rise by 0.6% on the month and 8.3% on the year. M4 lending rose by 1.4 billion sterling, the smallest increase since May 1999 and below the 8.9 billion forecast rise.
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A Bank of England official said there were no obvious factors to explain the weaker M4 data. Securitizations can distort the data, but these reduced M4 lending by less than 0.1 percentage points in April, the official said.
The M4 figures did, however, show that while retail deposits and cash continued to grow, corporate deposits were weak. Wholesale deposits, typically only available to larger corporations and financial institutions, fell by 1.9 billion sterling on the month, while retail deposits grew by 4.6 billion.