Monetary Services Index

The Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis produces up-to-date Monetary Services Index (MSI) numbers on a regular basis. Production of these data may lag by a short time due to the publication schedule of the monetary aggregates M1, M2, M3 and L by the Board of Governors.

Data for two of the components used in the calculation of L, savings bonds and short term treasuries, are temporarily unavailable. MSI-L will not be computed until further notice.

News

12 December 2008

Richard Anderson and Barry Jones have initiated research on alternative MSI series to replace those no longer available due to reductions in available data for some components. The new FRB St. Louis MSI will include additional historical data on deposit own rates, and will be more accurate measures of monetary assets' own rates and user costs. Also, MSI series for MSI-M1, MSI-M3, and MSI-L are discontinued. The project in-process will produce scientifically more correct MSI measures for MSI-MZM and MSI-M2. We anticipate these new series to be available near the end of February 2009.

Future projects are planned to construct (1) broader MSI measures that include assets previously included in MSI-L but not in MSI-M2, and (2) measures that include capital uncertain assets.

This web page also is adding a document library to hold various working papers and published articles on the MSI. All published papers must be accompanied by appropriate copyright information and waivers. Unpublished working papers and work-in-progress also will be considered for posting; submissions will be screened by the Advisory Board for quality. Some may be rejected. Posting of working papers shall not to be interpreted or publicized as "publication," nor as an endorsement by the Advisory Board or the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The MSI data published as of February 2006 will be frozen (including input data), and made available as a zipped archive on this page. This work is in-process; in the meantime, the constructed MSI as of this date are available below.

R.G. Anderson

Advisory Board

Members:
Richard Anderson, Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis (anderson@stls.frb.org)
William Barnett, University of Kansas
Jane Binner, Aston University, Birmingham, UK
Adrian Fleissig, University of California-Fullerton
Barry Jones, Binghamton University (SUNY)
Travis Nesmith, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Articles

The MSI measure the flow of monetary services received each period by households from their holdings of monetary assets (levels of the indexes are sometimes referred to as Divisia monetary aggregates). The theory and methodology of these indexes are presented in three papers by Richard Anderson, Barry Jones, and Travis Nesmith in the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, January/February 1997. The first paper introduces the MSI, the second paper surveys the relevant monetary aggregation theory, and the third details construction of the indexes and sources of the raw data.

Library of Related Publications

The document library holds various working papers and published articles on the MSI.

MSI Data

MSI data are provided on this server in 4 zipped (compressed) files. Each zipped file contains worksheets (.wks) that show seasonally adjusted and seasonally unadjusted data. Separate indexes are provided for each frequency because it is inappropriate to time-average the indexes: Rather, indexes at different frequencies should be constructed from appropriately time-aggregated data. All indexes are available at the same four levels of aggregation as the Federal Reserve Board's monetary aggregates: M1, M2, M3, and L. Indexes for M1A and a MZM are also included. CAUTION: MSI indexes labeled seasonally adjusted are calculated from individually seasonally adjusted components while the overall indexes are not seasonally adjusted.

MSIAm.zip (about 177K): This file contains monthly data on the variables shown in Section A of Table 1 in the third article by Anderson, Jones and Nesmith: the nominal expenditure on monetary services, the nominal (Törnqvist-Theil) monetary services index, the real user cost index dual to the nominal (Törnqvist-Theil) monetary services index, the currency equivalent index, and the simple sum index. (Table 1 in Adobe pdf format.) A text file that describes each series is also included.

MSIAq.zip(about 83K): This file contains quarterly and annual data on the variables shown in Section A of Table 1 in the third article by Anderson, Jones and Nesmith: the nominal expenditure on monetary services, the nominal (Törnqvist-Theil) monetary services index, the real user cost index dual to the nominal (Törnqvist-Theil) monetary services index, the currency equivalent index, and the simple sum index. (Table 1 in Adobe pdf format.) A text file that describes each series is also included.

MSIBm.zip (about 345K): This file contains monthly data on the variables shown in Section B of Table 1 in the third article by Anderson, Jones and Nesmith: the nominal monetary services index, the real (Törnqvist-Theil) user cost index, the (Törnqvist-Theil) expenditure share index, the Divisia quantity growth rate variance, the Divisia user cost growth rate variance, the Divisia expenditure share growth rate variance, and the Divisia quantity/use r cost growth rate covariance. A text file that describes each series also is included.

MSIBq.zip (about 143K): This file contains quarterly and annual data on the variables shown in Section B of Table 1 in the third article by Anderson, Jones and Nesmith: the nominal monetary services index, the real (Törnqvist-Theil) user cost index, the (Törnqvist-Theil) expenditure share index, the Divisia quantity growth rate variance, the Divisia user cost growth rate variance, the Divisia expenditure share growth rate variance, and the Divisia quantity/user cost growth rate covariance. A text file that describes each series also is included. CAUTION: MSI indexes labeled seasonally adjusted are calculated from individually seasonally adjusted components while the overall index is not seasonally adjusted.

Input Data

MSINPUT.zip (about 307K): This zipped file contains two worksheets and a text file describing the adjusted and unadjusted (raw) input data used to compute the MSI, including asset quantities, user costs, and the benchmark interest rate. The file "adjsam.wks" contains seasonally adjusted data, and the file "adjnsam.wks" contains not seasonally adjusted data. The text file "adjread.txt" explains the variables in the files. Note: the user costs and benchmark rate are the same in both files.

MSIDATAH.zip ( 100K ): Historical data used in Rats program to calculate the MSI series.

MSIDATAR.zip ( 80K ): Revised data used in Rats program to calculate the MSI series.

Computer Programs

MSRATS.zip (69K): The computer programs, in Rats version 4.2, plus a descriptive file "programs.txt."

Data from Previous Divisia Research

Data and programs available prior to the benchmark revisions of September 17, 2004 (data through April 2004).

Divisia Monetary Aggregates -- through 1992

Questions or comments can be sent to: