FRANKFURT (AFX) - Euro area adjusted M3 grew 5.4 pct year-on-year in May, up from a year-on-year growth rate of 4.8 pct in April. The three month moving average of adjusted M3 year-on-year growth rates was 4.9 pct in the March-May period compared with 4.6 pct in February-April.
The ECB revised the M3 year-on-year growth rate in April to 4.8 pct from 4.7 pct announced last month.
The ECB said the adjusted figures exclude non-resident holdings of money market fund shares and units. The inclusion of these holdings in M3 has recently led to a growing upward distortion in headline M3 growth.
The ECB is also studying a second distortion related to the inclusion of non-resident holdings of other marketable instruments in the M3 data and aims to publish a new series adjusted for both distortions towards the end of the year. It has estimated that this second distortion inflates M3 growth by around 0.5 percentage points.
The ECB has set a reference value of 4.5 pct for year-on-year M3 growth. The reference value is not a target but is used as a basis for monitoring trends in monetary growth.