U.S. Money Supply Climbs $5 Billion in Mid-August

The nation’s basic money supply, known as M1, rose $5 billion in mid-August, the Federal Reserve Board reported Thursday.

The Fed said M1 rose to a seasonally adjusted $684.9 billion in the week ended Aug. 11 from a revised $679.9 billion in the previous week. The previous week’s figure originally was reported by the Fed to be $679.6 billion.

M1 includes cash in circulation, deposits in checking accounts and non-bank travelers checks.

For the latest 13 weeks, M1 averaged $670.7 billion, a 17.9% seasonally adjusted annual rate of gain from the previous 13 weeks.

The Fed has said it would like to see M1 grow between 3% and 8% from the fourth quarter of 1985 through the final quarter of 1986.

But in recent weeks the central bank and the credit markets have placed less importance on the money supply, the Fed stressing that the money supply represents only one of several factors it considers when setting monetary policy.

Other indicators:

- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that commercial and industrial loans at major New York City banks fell $293 million in the week ended Aug. 13, compared to a gain of $745 million a week earlier.

- The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reported that the monetary base, the seasonally adjusted total of member bank reserves held at Federal Reserve banks and cash in bank vaults and in circulation, was $246.1 billion, down from $246.5 billion a week earlier.