Japan's money stock in September: M2 up 2.0%, M1 slightly down
Serguey Asael Shinder2 min readThe Bank of Japan published its preliminary money stock figures for September 2026 at 8:50 a.m. Tokyo time on 14 October. All growth rates below are year-on-year changes in average amounts outstanding, unless marked otherwise.
The headline aggregates.
- M2 rose 2.0%, the same pace as in August, to an average ¥1,295.6 trillion. Seasonally adjusted and annualised against August, M2 grew 2.4%.
- M3 rose 1.2%, also unchanged from August, to ¥1,638.3 trillion; the seasonally adjusted annualised rate was 1.4%.
- L, the broadly defined liquidity measure that adds trusts, investment trusts, bonds and similar instruments to M3, rose 4.3% to ¥2,344.3 trillion.
Inside M3. M1 — currency plus deposit money — fell 0.2%, its first decline since March, after flat readings in August. Currency in circulation was 1.3% lower than a year earlier, as in August, while deposit money was unchanged on the year. The growth came from quasi-money, which rose 4.7%, up from 4.3% in August. Certificates of deposit fell 14.0%, the steepest drop in the table and a further deterioration from −8.2% in August; CDs are a small component, at an average of ¥20.7 trillion.
The quarter. For July to September, M2 grew 2.0% and M3 1.2% year on year, after 2.3% and 1.6% in the second quarter. On a seasonally adjusted annualised basis, M2 slowed to 1.3% in the third quarter from 2.7% in the second, and M3 to 0.3% from 1.8%.
Revisions. The release marks several August figures as revised and notes that data from January 2026 onward have been corrected, with the revised series available in the BoJ's time-series database. Comparisons with earlier published numbers should therefore be made against the database rather than against previous releases.
The figures are preliminary; the Bank publishes them without commentary, so this release on its own says nothing about the reasons for the shift from current deposits towards quasi-money.
Source: Bank of Japan, "Money Stock (Preliminary Figures for September 2026)" — http://www.boj.or.jp/en/statistics/money/ms/ms2609.pdf