The country’s domestic liquidity, or M3, reached P4.2 trillion in April, higher by 7.3 percent from year-ago figures, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Thursday.

The broadest measure of money supply, however, was down by 0.6 percent on a monthly basis and seasonally adjusted from a growth of 1.4 percent for the previous month.

M3 includes time deposits, debt papers lodged at commercial banks, institutional money market accounts, all coins and bills held by the public, all savings and time deposits, among other things.

Its main components are the net foreign assets and the net domestic assets of the monetary system comprising the money held by the BSP and the banking system.

The BSP said the steady expansion in the total net foreign assets at 20.2 percent in April fueled the growth of domestic liquidity.

However, the net foreign assets of banks contracted further by 92.4 percent from a decline of 85.7 percent in the previous month as foreign liabilities rose while foreign assets declined. Banks’ foreign liabilities increased with the rise in bills payable, as well as higher placements and time deposits made by the head offices and other branches of foreign banks with their Philippine branches. Meanwhile, the contraction of banks’ foreign assets was due to the decline in loan receivables from foreign banks.