Two years in, India is seemingly undergoing “remonetization,” with cash usage growing 10.5 percent and returning to pre-demonetization levels. In fact, use of cash is expected to reach $2.45 trillion by 2021, up from $1.5 trillion in 2016. That said, the policy has helped digital...
Demonetization was launched in India in an effort to crack down on the nation’s underground economy, boost tax revenues and encourage the transition to a digital banking infrastructure. However, nearly two years after the policy launched in 2016, cash remains a key component of the...
China’s central bank said Friday (July 13) that companies and individuals have to accept cash payments, but that the rule isn’t being applied to online payments or stores that aren’t operated by a person. According to a report in Reuters, the People’s Bank of China said...
As a growing number of restaurants in Washington D.C. have decided to go cashless, some lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require retailers to accept cash. According to The Washington Post, the bill is in response to several cashless establishments popping up in the...
In the 26 years of continued economic growth in Australia, cash has continued to play an imperative role. In 2016 alone, Australian consumers and businesses spent some $143 billion in cold, hard cash. But while the country sees a high usage of the age-old payment...
More people in the U.K. are paying with debit cards over cash for the first time. According to The Guardian, consumers used their debit cards 13.2 billion times in 2017, an increase of 14 percent compared to the year before. The report by UK Finance,...
Swedish lawmakers are trying to slow down the nation’s move toward going entirely cashless by forcing the country’s largest banks to offer cash withdrawals and handle daily receipts. According to Bloomberg, Parliament’s Riksbank committee is in the process of reviewing the law, which would apply...
In November 2016, the Indian government issued a ban on the nation’s higher denomination 500- and 1000-rupee notes, essentially deeming 86 percent of its currency invalid. But to date, India's demonetization policy has not achieved its goals. Hugo Erken and Wim Boonstra, senior economists at...
India, China and their powerhouse Asia-Pacific neighbors boast a massive regional cash economy, with residents spending a total $5.6 trillion in cash in 2016. But with some of the region’s governments demonetizing high-value notes and encouraging the use of digital payments, cash is now seeing...
