Reports and Publications

Banknotes and coins help shape our national identity. The images they display emphasise historical events, prominent personalities, or scientific, industrial and technological advances. Sometimes they highlight biodiversity, including distinctive plants and wildlife.

A new paper by Godschalk, Krüger and Seitz concludes that the launch of a digital euro would be complex and expensive and provides no guarantee of adding value to the existing payment systems.

A new CashEssentials paper addresses the questions ‘Is cash a public good? Is it a basic right?’ to clarify the debate and advance policy recommendations.

A new paper analyses how different kinds of uncertainty impact cash demand. In uncertain times, cash always stabilizes the overall situation and leads to a more resilient economy.

Cash remains the most used payment instrument in France. It has become even more popular, despite the proliferation of digital payments.

A new paper explores the behavioral drivers for using cash or digital payments in Africa. The emotional driver is the only trait determining payment methods' use. Thus, policy should ensure the availability of payment alternatives, including cash.

A Dutch central bank report stresses that cash is especially important for people with low digital literacy, people with a specific type of disability, and people with low incomes.

There is a degree of heterogeneity in cash demand between the largest member states of the euro area. While developments of cash in circulation in Italy, France and Germany broadly followed the pattern traced by the euro area, there are deviations caused by local circumstances.

Cash is the only payment instrument that is largely independent of technical infrastructure. It is therefore essential, especially in crisis and emergency situations, to ensure that the cash cycle continues to operate, as electronic means of payment are unavailable or only available to a limited extent.

A new paper proposes a novel approach to banknote demand forecasting, arguing that the traditional forecasting models used by the National Central Banks within the Eurosystem have not coped well with the series of economic shocks over the last few years.

The share of payments in cash declined slightly in 2022 to 18% of all payments. Store-of-value holdings of cash increased to $418 per person and remain far higher than pre-pandemic levels. 93% of consumers have no plan to stop using cash.

Using transaction data from a large retailer, researchers found that Indian consumers increased their cash purchases after the demonetisation of cash in circulation in November 2016.