A Tale of Two Countries: Cash Demand in Canada and Sweden

Walter Engert, Ben Fung and Björn Segendorf

No 2019-7, Discussion Papers from Bank of Canada

Abstract: Cash use for payments has been steadily decreasing in many countries, including Canada and Sweden. This might suggest an evolution toward a cashless society. But in Canada, cash in circulation relative to GDP has been stable for decades and has even increased in recent years. By contrast, the cash-to-GDP ratio in Sweden has been falling steadily. What has caused this difference? Are there lessons to be learned from comparing the Canadian and Swedish experiences?

Keywords: Bank notes; Digital Currencies and Fintech; Financial services; Payment clearing and settlement systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E41 E42 E5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2019-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac, nep-mon and nep-pay
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Working Paper: A Tale of Two Countries: Cash Demand in Canada and Sweden (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bca:bocadp:19-7

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