“The euro is being heard” – billions of mattresses: quantities of cash elevation

According to the figures from the Bundesbank, the share of banknotes that are stored in Germany for “value storage” is almost two and a half times as high in 2013. In absolute numbers: according to the Bundesbanker, 395 billion euros have stored in the private households of Germany – very unevenly distributed, since then many households have not have low ballcess reserves.

“Cash Paradox”
According to the figures from the European Central Bank, a total of 1,564 trillion euros in cash were in circulation in March in March. That was almost 30 billion more than in the spring of 2022 and even 300 billion euros more than at the start of the Corona Pandemic five years earlier. The growth rate has been delayed since 2022, but the amount of cash in circulation is still increasing and does not decrease. The phenomenon is called “Banknot Paradox” in the Bundesbank. It has been “observing for many years, in many countries,” says a spokeswoman for Bundesbank in Frankfurt.

“Until 2021, the growth of banknotes in Omloop has always been a multiple of annual inflation,” says Johannes Gärtner, payment specialist at the Strategy Strategy &.

The phenomenon is paradoxical because it is known that the number of people who pay with performances and coins. In 2023, according to the Bundesbank, half of all payment processes in cash from Germany was handled, but only a good quarter of the entire turnover.

Also electronic payment on the advance
According to a recent study by strategy and 5,500 respondents in nine European countries and Turkey, the payment card has now replaced cash as the most common payment resources – only 23 percent prefer in cash. Many retailers now also prefer electronic payment, especially the contactless person, where the customer does not have to enter the customer. “This is a maximum of seven times faster than cash payment,” says Bernd Ohlmann, the spokesperson for the Bavarian Trade Association.

But why is more money in circulation when fewer and fewer people use it in daily life? “The euro will be obtained very strongly,” says Ralf Winter Barst, CEO of the Banknote and manufacturer of the Banknote and the manufacturer of the Giesecke+Devrient security technology, which is a good 150 central banks worldwide. “The production volume of the euro is also used to pay, but now also to store it.”

The company has been in discussion with the central banks for 20 or 30 years: “What is actually happening in the money cycle, why and where people use in cash?” The explanation of winter barley for the obvious trend to hoard cash: “Uncertainty is the floating factor.”

According to the Deutscher Bundesbank, the share of cash stored during the Corona Pandemie-that was largely due to the months of curse in the first phase of Pandemie: “The increase in the banknote circulation in Crises-Niet alone during the Corona-Pandemische cover, said that Bundesbank spokes opposed.

Gangsters need cash
Management adviser Gärtner brings two other factors into the game, which is said to contribute to the increase in cash. “In short, the growth in the amount of cash cannot be assigned to traditional payment transactions,” says the financial expert. “On the contrary, the reasons are in a mixture of hoarding,” shadow economy and the role as reserve currency abroad. “

“Shadow Economy” refers to economic activities that go beyond the right and right, whether the classically not declared work or criminal companies. The A3 -Velweg in Bavaria, for example, is known for the fact that the police repeatedly encounter huge amounts: in November veil researchers found a million euros in the car of a 34 -year -old man, presumably from criminal stores and packaged in plastic bags.

Old -modes, but safe
But even if the importance of cash in the daily life of the law that is likely to decrease citizenship, it is not to be expected that only gangsters and coins in the wallet – or in plastic bags – drag along. The Bundesbank has been committed to maintaining cash and the corresponding infrastructure. Because cash has unmistakable benefits. Last but not least, this includes that notes and coins do not require electricity and no electronic infrastructure. “The central bank must ensure a permanent, resilient payment infrastructure,” says G+D CEO Wintergerst. “If there is war, if there are crises, it must still be possible to pay floods. Cash speaks for that.”