Digital Payments and Cash Hoarding Are Both Hitting Record Highs in India
By Prathamesh Mulye
The Covid-19 pandemic has given a booster shot to digital transactions in India, but cash is still king.
After breaching the 2-billion mark for the first time ever, the number of transactions on India’s partly state-owned digital payment platform Unified Payment Interface (UPI) stood at 2.2 billion in October. Despite this rise in digital payments, Indians are also holding cash at record levels, according to the data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). “With a nationwide lockdown and people mostly remaining indoors, amidst fear and uncertainty, the usage of cash witnessed an abnormal rise,” the RBI said in its annual report (pdf), released on Aug. 25.
Photo courtesy of romanakr.
Source: Quartz Africa (link opens in a new window)
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