This chart is basically showing the world’s money engine, and China is no longer sitting in the passenger seat. It is one of the biggest pistons in the machine.
The image tracks M1 money supply, which is the most liquid form of money in an economy. Think cash, checking deposits, and money that can move quickly. In simple terms, this is the fuel that can rush into markets, banks, spending, credit, and eventually hard assets.
For decades, the global money story was mostly dominated by the US and other major developed economies. But from the 2000s onward, China’s contribution becomes impossible to ignore. The gold section keeps expanding, showing that China has become a massive source of global liquidity. Then after 2020, the chart gets even more dramatic. The US line jumps, China stays large, and the G10 excluding the US remains huge. The big message is simple. The world has created an enormous amount of money, and China is now a central part of that story.
Now here is where commodities enter the room like they own the place.
More money in the system usually means more liquidity looking for somewhere to go. Some flows into stocks. Some flows into property. But when confidence in paper assets gets shaky, money starts hunting for real things. Oil. Copper. Gold. Silver. Food. Energy. Metals.
China matters even more because it is not just a money creator. It is also one of the world’s biggest commodity consumers. So when Chinese liquidity rises, it can support construction, manufacturing, infrastructure, and industrial demand. That can tighten supply, lift prices, and wake up commodity bull markets.
In short, this chart is not just about money. It is about purchasing power, inflation pressure, and the fuel behind the next big move in hard assets.
