Cash is still (mostly) king in Eurozone
People have been predicting the death of cash for years. And depending on who you talk to, the future is either just around the corner or will never quite happen.
A typical Swedish person (who makes three times the number of card transactions than the average of European) can probably imagine that future. But if you talk to anyone in Germany – a company with a historic affinity to cold hard cash – they might look at you funny.
A recent report from the European Central Bank has gathered up data on how households use cash across European countries in the Euro (bear with us, it’s more interesting than it sounds). Surprisingly, it’s the first serious investigation into cash usage since 2008.
Cash is still (mostly) king in Eurozone
For those of you who aren’t interested in a 60-page report, here’s the TL:DR:- 79% of all payments at at point of sale devices were made with cash
- 19% with cards
- 2% of payments were made with what the report enigmatically calls ‘other payment instruments’.
- 54% of transaction value is made with cash,
- 39% by card and
- 7% by those shady ‘other instruments’.