The rigorous monetary policies of the 1990s have kept the ratio of the quantity of money to GDP in the G10 countries unchanged at close to 60%. The picture changes, with a larger increase in liquidity, if account is taken of cross-border bank deposits. Interbank deposits and those held by nonbanks grew at an annual rate of 11%.
According to data reported to the Bank for international Settlements, the former amounted to 21% of world GDP in 1996 and the latter to 6%. Derivative products have made a decisive contribution to the increase in the liquidity of the world economy since the early 1990s, when the growth in the quantity of money was brought under tighter control.