SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 18 of 99

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Money supply is a _____ concept.

(a)flow
(b)stock
(c)non-measurable
(d)measurable

Answer

Why

Correct — B. A stock is measured at a point in time. A flow is measured over a period of time.

Money supply is the total money held by the public on a given date — RBI publishes it as on a reporting Friday — so it is a stock. Income, saving and investment are flows, because those figures only mean anything with a per-year or per-month attached.

The trap sits in option (d). Money supply is certainly measurable, but the pair the question sets up is stock against flow, and option (b) is the term that answers it.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
flow — A flow needs a time period to be meaningful — income per year, investment per quarter. Money supply is quoted as a total on a date, so it fails that test.
(c)
non-measurable — Non-measurable is simply false. RBI publishes the money stock as M1, M2, M3 and M4 on a regular schedule.
(d)
measurable — Measurable is true of money supply and still does not answer the question, which asks which half of the stock-flow pair it belongs to. Flows are measurable too.

Concept

Stock and flow is the first distinction in macroeconomics because it decides what a number even means.

Wealth, capital, money supply and the population of a country are stocks — snapshots at a moment. Income, saving, depreciation and exports are flows — rates over a period.

RBI publishes four measures of the money stock. M1 is currency with the public plus demand deposits with banks plus other deposits with RBI, and M2 adds post office savings deposits.

M3, the aggregate monetary resources, is M1 plus time deposits with banks, and M4 adds total post office deposits.

The question is not asking whether the variable can be counted. Both stocks and flows are measurable, which is exactly why the measurable option is placed in the same list — true of money supply, and still not an answer to what was asked.

Key facts

A stock is measured at a point in time and a flow over a period of time.
Money supply, wealth and capital are stocks. Income, saving and investment are flows.
M1 is currency with the public plus demand deposits with banks plus other deposits with RBI.
M3, the aggregate monetary resources, is M1 plus time deposits with banks.

Study next

The four money-supply measures M1 to M4 and what each one addsHigh-powered money and the money multiplierCircular flow of income, and which items are injections and which leakages

Common traps

Choosing measurable because the statement is true, without checking that the question sets up a stock-flow pair.
Calling money supply a flow because money circulates.

This slot is a one-line definitional pairing — stock against flow. The circular flow of income, which turns on the same distinction, is also asked 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q16.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.