Experts from the Bank for International Settlements have drawn a conclusion that good old cash will be actively used for long. Despite growing popularity of bank cards and mobile payment systems, cash money outweighs notably non-cash means of payments.
A large number of people still prefer banknotes and coins for everyday shopping. Remarkably, even in the time of the robust hi-tech advance, a share of cash money in circulation is steadily on the rise. Cash money accounted for 7% of the global GDP in 2000 and its share increased to 9% in 2016. Stability of cash money as a social institution reminds us that money still performs an important economic function apart from technological novelties, as Hyun Song Shin, the Economic Adviser and Head of the BIS Research Department, puts it. Interestingly, in some countries conventional money has been nearly replaced by electronic means of payment. But such countries are rather an exception.
At present, Sweden is the first country where people can do without banknotes and coins. People can pay anywhere by a bank card or through a mobile app. Most banks in Sweden have terminated cash transactions. Restaurants and museums accept payments only by bank cards and smartphones. On the other hand, even simple electronic payment technologies are still unavailable to a population in most countries worldwide. In other words, cash money is sure to be widely used in the years ahead.
