Monthly monetary update
Every month, the Institute of International Monetary Research produces a series of notes analysing the latest monetary trends in the world's largest economies - the USA, China, Japan, India, the UK and the Eurozone - along with an accompanying video.
If you are looking for research from previous years, please go to our Monetary Updates Archive page.
Our most recent regular monthly money note (April 2026) can be accessed here and the latest video (April 2026) here.
April 2026 Summary
In the USA commercial banks’ deposits have grown strongly in recent months, with the annualised rate of increase in the three months to March being a disturbingly high 9.5%. In qualification, 2025’s boom in money market mutual funds stopped in the first quarter of 2026, even though the Trump administration continues to run an enormous budget deficit. Money growth has increased in China since mid-2025, while the Indian banking system is growing at annual rates in the mid-teens % on the back of booming credit and vigorous trend growth. With these three economies accounting for over 40% of world output (and indeed about 50% on world output measured after adjustment for purchasing power parity), the world economy was heading for above-trend growth in 2026 before the shock of the Iran war. The Iran war will reduce output growth and raise the price level in 2026, but the prospect has to be that – in the medium run - international pressure will open the Strait of Hormuz and the war’s economic effects will be minor. Money growth is moderate – or even slow – in the Eurozone, Japan and the UK.