In Cyprus, cash was used for 72% of point-of-sale payments in terms of value in 2016 (ECB, 2017)

calendar iconJun 16, 2020

Source

The statistic comes from the European Central Bank's study on Cash Use by Household in the Euro Area, published in November 2017.

The report presents estimations of the number and value of cash transactions in all 19 euro area countries in 2016, based on survey result as well as figures on main payments by demographic.

According to the findings from the European Central Bank’s report, in Cyprus “only 66% of the Cypriot adult population said that they owned or had access to a payment card” (ECB, 2017).

Excerpts from ECB

“The use of cash and cards differs according to country, place of purchase,

transaction value and consumers’ demographic characteristics […] In terms of value, the share of cash was highest in Greece, Cyprus and Malta (above 70%).” (p. 4)

“In terms of value of payments made at POS, in all countries the share of cash was much lower than in terms of number of payments. In Cyprus, Malta and Greece the share of cash in value of payments was the highest, ranging from 72% to 75%.” (p. 19)

“In terms of value of transactions, the average value of a cash transaction was the highest in Cyprus, Luxembourg and Austria where it ranged from €18.60 to €17.80 (see Chart 4a). This suggests that consumers in these countries use cash not only to pay low amounts but also relatively higher amounts.” (p. 19)

“Furthermore, in addition to Cyprus, in Austria, Malta, Ireland, Greece and Spain a larger share of respondents stated that they prefer using cash over cashless means of payment.” (p. 52)

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Download the study here

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Last Updated: Jun 16, 2020