United States Reserve Balances with Fed Banks

Latest figures

The latest release for 20261028, published on 29 October 2026, came in at $2.895T.

See it in the economic calendar →

Why it matters

Money growth was once a direct target of central banks; today it is read as a signal of lending, spending and future inflation, and of how loose or tight the Federal Reserve's policy really is (quantitative easing shows up here first).

How it is calculated

Banks report their deposits to the central bank, which adds them up by category; the figure is usually shown as the change from a year earlier.

M1 = currency + overnight deposits
M2 = M1 + short-term savings and time deposits
M3 = M2 + repos, money-market funds and short debt

What changes mean

• Fast money growth with an economy near full capacity is a warning of inflation to come.
• Shrinking money (as in 2023 in several countries) signals tight credit.
• Markets usually react little; it matters for the medium-term picture.

A short history

Milton Friedman's monetarism made money supply the centre of policy in the 1970s and early 1980s ("inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon"). Its link with inflation proved unstable and central banks moved to interest-rate targets.

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