Australian wallets stuffed with cash
CASHLESS? Hardly. Australians are holding on to more of the stuff than ever before, and accumulating it at an increasing rate.
The latest Reserve Bank figures show our holdings of plastic notes grew by an extraordinary 7 per cent in the year to June at a time when Australia's population grew by 1.4 per cent.
Australians now hold an average of seven $5 notes per person, up from five a decade ago, and five $10 notes, up from four. Our holdings of $20 notes are little changed at seven per person. The explosive growth is in our holdings of $50 notes - up from 15 per person to 23 per person - and $100 notes, up from seven per person to 10.
The Reserve Bank says $50 and $100 notes account for 91 per cent of the value of notes in circulation and 65 per cent of the number of notes in tills, wallets and in storage.
Yet many Australians hardly ever see a $100 note and probably see an orange $20 note more often than the three times as popular yellow $50.
One reason might be that many of the yellow notes are stored in ATMs where they have replaced the $20 note as the main means of supplying cash. Another might be that many of the green $100 notes are stored in bundles in boxes or suitcases as means of facilitating the cash economy rather than put into wallets for use in legitimate transactions. If so, the cash economy is growing at an alarming rate. Before the introduction of the GST in 2000 there were roughly half as many $100 notes per person as there are today.
The $50 note is by far the most counterfeited, with almost 7000 fake notes detected in the year to June compared with only 600 fake $100 notes.
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/business/australian-wallets-stuffed-with-cash-20120923-26f6q.html#ixzz27Lm574cf
5 comments:
I thought the whole point of the pretty, plastic notes was that they were night on impossible to counterfeit. Apparently not the case eh?
I don't think I have ever had a $100 note of my own. Fifties because as you say they are ATMs preference. The others come as change. Interesting. And yes, I believe that the cash economy went gangbusters when the GST was introduced.
Astrid, they are difficult to counterfeit but as the figures indicate some still try. My bank friends tell me that false fifties range from 'sophisticated' to 'simple' forgeries.
$100's, as they say, are in circulation and usually kept in wads 'under the mattress' to feed the 'cash economy'. In rural areas you are more likely to 'get work done' if you pay cash! (Sad but reasonably true!)
I haven't seen a green note for years. I remember when they first came out, I lost one out of my wallet when I took one out to pay an account.
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