CFS Divisia money growth soared across the board with broad money expanding at a double-digit pace in March (10.0%) – for the swiftest gain since October 2008 (10.6%). CFS Divisia M4, which is the broadest and most important measure of money, grew by 10.0% in March 2020 on a year-over-year basis versus 7.2% in February.
Large infusions of Federal Reserve liquidity led to the largest gain in narrow money since the start of our data begins in 1967. Here, CFS Divisia M1 advanced by 15.1% in March from the year earlier, relative to a scant increase of 1.0% in March 2019 over the preceding year. The second largest increase in the history of CFS Divisa M1 occurred in August 2011 in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis during the height of QE.
An odd mix exists between gigantic infusions of Federal Reserve liquidity and agents in the economy flocking to safety.
Lastly, the inflation versus deflation debate will become more nuanced as time elapses. To be sure, disinflation will dominate in the near term with jobless claims hitting highs and oil prices likely to remain low for an extended period of time. Nonetheless, the passthrough from monetary policy into inflation is meaningfully more complex than often thought. My remarks at the Society of Economic Measurement conference in Thessaloniki shed some light on the interplay between CFS Divisia Money and inflation over time – http://centerforfinancialstability.org/research/why_cfs_divisia_071316.pdf
For Monetary and Financial Data Release Report:
http://www.centerforfinancialstability.org/amfm/Divisia_Mar20.pdf
Bloomberg terminal users can access our monetary and financial statistics by any of the four options:
1) ALLX DIVM
2) ECST T DIVMM4IY
3) ECST
4) ECST S US MONEY SUPPLY