The European Central Bank has said that the euro cash changeover is progressing as expected and the withdrawal of old currencies is advancing rapidly. The amount of money denominated in old notes and coins in the Euro-zone is now 42% lower than in January last year.
According to the ECB, €50bn-worth of old money was withdrawn from circulation in Europe last week alone. The Frankfurt-based Central Bank added that there is still another €220bn-worth of old money still to be withdrawn.
While there are sufficient quantities of euro bank notes and coins to meet the current high demand, the bank said that some coin shortages are beginning to appear at local level because some people have already begun to hoard significant quantities of the new coin.
In Dublin, the Irish Central Bank also gave its progress report. It said that 142m euro bank notes and over one billion euro coins with a combined value of £2.8bn has been put into circulation in the first week of the changeover.
A total of £2.6bn punts were still in circulation at the close of business yesterday. This is down more than 30% since 31 December.
The Irish figures also suggest that punt notes and coins are currently being taken out of circulation at a rate of £222m for every working day. These figures confirm that the euro changeover in Ireland is proceeding at one of the fastest rates in Europe.
