JAPAN

Money Supply Growth at Record Low: Japan’s broad money supply (M2 plus certificates of deposit) grew at a record-low pace of 0.2% in July compared to 0.9% in June. A Bank of Japan official attributed part of the slowdown to slower commercial bank lending. The central bank has until recently promoted broad money supply as the most important indicator to follow when setting monetary policy. But it is joining a growing list of central banks around the world that have been flustered at the behavior of monetary aggregates, and the Bank of Japan says the measure is becoming less useful as a measure of economic activity.