The European Central Bank says the number of seized counterfeit euro notes jumped by 17% in the first six months of 2009 compared with the previous six months. The ECB said a total of 413,000 counterfeit euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation in the period.
In January the central bank had reported a six-month increase of 13%, while stressing that the scale of counterfeiting remained small, a comment it did not repeat this time.
The ECB said however that the fake notes seized in 2009 had the same origin as previously discovered notes, meaning that no new sources of counterfeit money had been found.
It added that 'the scale of counterfeiting should be compared with the number of genuine euro banknotes in circulation,' roughly 12.5 billion on average during the first half of this year.
Once again, fake €20 notes were recovered most often, representing 48.5% of the total, followed by €50 notes, which comprised 34% of the total and €100 notes at 13.5%.
The number of seized counterfeit notes has risen steadily since the first half of 2007, when 265,000 notes were recovered. Almost all the counterfeit notes were seized within the 16-nation euro zone, with less than 2% found elsewhere, mainly in other EU member states.
