Bahraini money supply growth fell to 8.8 per cent in May, central bank data showed on Wednesday, the slowest rate since December 2004.

M3, the broadest measure of money circulating the economy, stood at 8.03 billion dinars ($21.31 billion) on May 31 compared with BD7.39 billion a year earlier, the central bank said in a monthly bulletin on its website.

Growth in money supply, one indicator of future inflation, has decelerated rapidly since peaking at an annual rate of almost 37 per cent in June last year.

Month on month, money supply rose 0.63 percent as demand deposits edged up 0.23 percent to 1.76 billion dinars, and funds held in time and savings deposits rose 0.92 percent to 4.65 billion dinars.

The central bank's net foreign assets dipped to 1.31 billion dinars in May from 1.39 billion dinars in April, its fourth straight month of declines.-Reuters