U.S. Monetary Base Grows for First Time since May

In October 2015, the monetary base was $4.076 trillion. This was a slight increase from the previous month and put the monetary base above $4 trillion for the third month in a row. Since July 2014, just before the end of QE, the monetary base has been bouncing above and below $4 trillion. Compared with one year ago, the monetary base increased for the first time since May, however the rate of increase was rather small at just 1.4 percent. The annual rate of change has slowed to 1.6 percent, which was the slowest rate of annual growth since August 1961. It has been decelerating since June 2014. This is a negative sign for future capital spending. 

You can see how the monetary base leads various machine tool sales and consumption data as well as primary plastics processing equipment at our monetary page.