| Actual | Previous | |
| Month over Month | -0.1% | 0.4% |
| Year over Year | 3.0% | 4.7% |
Highlights
In January 2026, the UK's broad money supply (M4) fell by 0.1 percent, down from 0.4 percent rise in the previous month. Annually, M4 expanded by 3.0 percent, down from 4.7 percent in the previous month. While the monthly figures suggest a contraction in money supply and the annual figure suggests a deceleration in the rate of growth of the money supply compared to the previous month, M4 excluding intermediate other financial corporations (OFCs) reveals a more discouraging trend over the month as it fell by 0.2 percent. On an annual basis, however, it rose by 3.6 percent, down from 5.0 percent the previous month, indicating that money held by households and non-financial businesses is still increasing but at a slower pace. This reflects ongoing support for consumption and investment, helping to underpin economic activity without generating inflationary pressure.
The lending landscape presents a more encouraging trend. M4 lending rose by 0.8 percent in January, up from 0.2 percent in December, while annual growth rose to 5.9 percent in January, up from 5.8 percent the previous month. However, lending growth excluding OFCs, considered a more accurate gauge of real-economy dynamics, grew 0.4 percent in the month (down from 0.5 percent the previous month), while it grew by 6.2 percent annually, up from 6.1 percent the previous month. This suggests that household and non-financial firm borrowing is expanding at a measured pace, consistent with stable economic fundamentals. In summary, January's update points to moderating money supply growth alongside steady real-economy lending, suggesting a cooling but still supportive monetary environment consistent with stable and non-inflationary economic expansion.
Definition
M4 is the Bank of England's main broad measure of money supply. There is no target for M4 and in practice the central bank tends to follow an adjusted measure that excludes intermediate other financial corporations in order to get a handle on current underlying trends. The M4 private sector lending counterpart is the most closely watched aspect of the report.
Description
M4 is similar to the M3 measure used in some other countries. M4 includes everything in M2 (also called the retail component of M4) plus other deposits with an original maturity of up to five years; other claims on financial institutions such as repos and bank acceptances; debt instruments issued by financial institutions including commercial paper and bonds with a maturity of up to five years. Understanding the role of money in the economy has always been an important issue for policymakers. And the pickup in broad money growth and decline in credit spreads over the past three years together with more recent financial market turbulence has made it a particularly pertinent issue. Monetary data can potentially provide important corroborative or incremental information about the outlook for inflation. Quantitative easing is essentially a policy aimed at boosting money supply.