Japan Sept money supply up 0.6 pct yr-on-yr

The most widely-watched measure of money supply, M2 plus certificates of deposit (CDs), rose 0.6 pct year-on-year in September following a revised 0.4 pct gain in the previous month, the Bank of Japan said in a preliminary report. The increase was slightly bigger than market's consensus forecast of 0.5 pct, according to a Nihon Keizai Shimbun poll. M2 plus CDs which economists say closely correlate to real economic activity, cover cash in circulation, ordinary bank deposits, time deposits and certificates of deposit. Near money -- cash equivalents and other assets that are easily convertible into cash -- declined 0.1 pct in September from a year earlier, after falling a revised 1.0 pct in August, the central bank said. The narrow measure of money supply, M1, rose 1.5 pct in September, after increasing a revised 2.4 pct in the previous month. Certificates of deposit fell 4.2 pct last month following a drop of 10.7 pct in August.