Money Supply Calculator

Use the money supply calculator to determine various standard measures of the US money supply, most prominently:

• M0 money supply (M1 money stock FED);
• M1 money supply;
• M2 money supply;
• M3 money supply.

In addition, we explain the relationship between money supply and inflation, and we also cover multiple interesting points on this topic, for example:

• How to calculate the money supply with reserve ratio;
• How to calculate the change in money supply;
• What is the money supply definition;
• How does banking affect the money supply; and
• Why does an increase in money supply decrease interest rates?

If you would like to calculate the money supply with a money multiplier, check our multiplier calculator.

In macroeconomics, the money supply refers to the total stock of money present in a given economy at a particular time. While the exact money supply definition varies depending on the purpose of the assessment and the central bank of the given country, its standard measures typically embrace currency in circulation and different types of demand deposits.

The present calculator reflects the U.S. money supply measures determined by the Federal Reserve with default approximated values in 2020. It includes the following categories.

Note that the different money supply measures are ranked according to their liquidity levels.

• M0: The total of all physical currency, including coinage.
  M0 = Federal Reserve Notes + US Notes + Coins

• Monetary Base: the total of all physical currency plus Federal Reserve Deposits.
  MB = M0 + Federal Reserve Deposits

• M1: the M1 money supply is composed of the following elements:
  M1 = M0 + Demand deposits + Travelers checks + Checkable deposits + Savings account
  Note that the money supply M1 does not include the currency held by the U.S. Treasury.

• M2:
  M2 = M1 + Money market accounts + Retail money market mutual funds + Time deposits (CDs) under $100,000

• MZM (Money Zero Maturity) — click to open:
  MZM = M2 - time deposits + money market funds

• M3 — click to open:
  M3 = M2 + Time deposits (CDs) above $100,000

• M4 — click to open:
  M4-= M3 + Commercial Paper
M4= M4- + T-Bills

Since lending is an essential feature of market economy, banks play a central role in economic growth. When banks lend money, they create a deposit (liability for the bank, asset for the borrower) matching with the value of the loan (asset for the bank, liability for the borrower). Therefore, as opposed to the textbook-like mechanism, in essence, banks do not lend out the money (savings) deposited, but bank lending creates a deposit. Of course, banks can't create money without a limit. There are multiple constraints binding on banks' activity:

• Profitability in the competitive banking system;
• Prudential regulations to keep banks resilient (i.e., capital ratios, Basel);
• Behavior of the private sector (i.e., the money supply decreases when we repay loans); and
• Monetary policy interventions (i.e., rising interest rates).

If you are interested, you may watch this report, where a representative of the Bank of England explains the process of money creation and the mechanism of quantitative easing.

You need to take the following steps to calculate the change in money supply if the reserve ratio is, let's say, 10 percent.

1. Determine the money multiplier by dividing one by the reserve ratio, which is the percentage of deposits that the central bank requires a bank to keep either as cash in their vaults or as deposits with a Federal Reserve Bank — (1 / 0.1 = 10).

2. Find out the change in reserves. For example, the Federal Reserve injects $1,000,000 into the economy through open market operation (i.e., selling $100,000 worth of US government bonds).

3. Estimate the maximum change in money supply by multiplying the change in reserves by the money multiplier.
   Money Supply Change = Change in Reserves × Money Multiplier = $100,000 × 10 = $1,000,000

Note that the above money supply formula does not necessarily hold. First, many economists argue that money creation in the modern economy happens prominently through loan creation, independently from depositing money. Second, lending activity may not operate on its upper limit due to supply/demand factors and financial frictions.

Indeed, reserve ratios worldwide dropped to a very low level after the Great Recession (around 1 percent) without increasing the money supply proportionally, which is another evidence of non-linearity between the money supply and the reserve ratio.

Yes. If, for example, commercial banks and the private sector respond to an expansionary monetary policy (i.e., lower policy interest rates) with increased loan activity, an increase in the money supply will boost investment and aggregate demand and thus the GDP growth. It is worth noting that if the real economy cannot keep pace with the increase in the money supply and the higher aggregate demand (i.e., negative output gap), inflation may rise. An extreme form of money supply and inflation relation is the phenomenon of hyperinflation (at our , which occurs at the time of massive money injection (money printing) with incapable economic production and high aggregate demand.

If you would like to learn more about the concept of the output gap, check our GDP gap calculator.