A–Z of economic indicators

Liquidity describes how easily you can buy or sell without moving the price. Deep liquidity means tight spreads, reliable fills and orderly movement. Thin liquidity means wider spreads, slippage and sudden jumps. Liquidity varies through the day, peaking when London and New York overlap and thinning during the late Asian session, holidays and the minutes around major releases.

The RBI rate used to absorb overnight bank liquidity against eligible government securities.

A public holiday observed in several countries, including the United States and Canada, that can close or shorten market sessions and thin out liquidity.

A period to avoid — usually around a high-impact release or a thin-liquidity handover — where normal behaviour breaks down.

A Colombian public holiday observed for the Assumption of Mary, relevant to traders because it can affect COP liquidity, settlement and local market hours.

Ireland's August Bank Holiday is a public holiday on the first Monday in August that can affect local market operations and liquidity.

Bank of Japan JGB purchases are central-bank operations in which the BoJ buys Japanese government bonds to implement policy and influence liquidity conditions in the bond market.

A public appearance by Claudia Buch that may provide context on euro-area banking supervision and financial-stability conditions.

Iceland Commerce Day is a public holiday that can affect local banking hours, settlement and liquidity in Icelandic markets.

Arbaeen is an Iranian public holiday observed according to the Islamic calendar, with market relevance mainly through closures, settlement timing and local liquidity conditions.

M2 is a broad US money-supply measure published monthly by the Federal Reserve.

A period of the day when conditions typically support trading — reasonable liquidity, no major release imminent.

A block of the trading day defined by which financial centres are active, and therefore how much liquidity is available.

The ECB rate charged when eligible euro-area banks borrow overnight from the Eurosystem against collateral.

Egypt M2 Money Supply YoY tracks the annual growth of broad money, a measure of liquidity in the Egyptian economy.

A monthly measure of the external reserve assets available to the Banque de France.

India's Cash Reserve Ratio is the percentage of banks' net demand and time liabilities that must be maintained as cash reserves with the Reserve Bank of India.

A weekly RBI measure of India's total reserves (foreign currency assets, gold, SDRs and the IMF reserve position), expressed in US dollars.

The interest rate on Bank Indonesia's conventional standing lending facility for eligible banks.

A monthly measure of Hong Kong's foreign-currency reserve holdings, reported in US dollars.

A monthly SARB release detailing the US-dollar value and composition of South Africa's official reserve assets.

A monthly measure of the South African Reserve Bank's net foreign-currency reserve position, expressed in US dollars.

Weekly Wednesday level of balances banks hold at the Federal Reserve, from the Fed's H.4.1 release (millions of US dollars, not seasonally adjusted).

Uzbekistan’s foreign exchange reserves measure the central bank’s stock of official reserve assets and other foreign-currency assets, an important gauge of external liquidity and currency resilience.