The central bank said that its 2024 survey on payment methods reveal that Canadians keep on average $ 156 in cash, $ 16 more than in 2023.
Adjusted according to inflation, the Bank of Canada indicated that the value of the species held has remained “quite stable” since 2017, despite slight variations linked to the COVVI-19 pandemic.
The survey, however, said that customers more often use automatic counters and banking branches, but also that they remove more liquid money from each withdrawal.
By age group, people 55 and over were most likely to have cash on them at 86.8 %, more than 10 percentage points more than other demographic groups.
The youngest cohort interviewed, that of 18 to 34, is the one that held the most cash in its wallet, or $ 206 on average.
The Bank of Canada said that people belonging to the lowest income tranche were tended to have the least cash, but were more likely to pay in cash.
The survey of more than 4,000 people, in partnership with Ipsos, from mid-October to mid-November from last year, included a selection of respondents who recorded their regular purchases over several days.
The people interviewed mentioned that around 20 % of their purchases were made in cash.
While the use of cash was constantly decreasing before the Pandemic of COVID-19, the Bank of Canada has argued that these figures have resisted in recent years.
The results show a gap compared to other countries, such as the United States, where researchers from the Banque de Canada stressed a continuous annual drop in the use of cash.
The Bank of Canada said he expected that 79 % of Canadians do not intend to do without money in 2024, while 8 % argued that they would possibly do it and 13 % said they already had them. These figures remained stable compared to 2022 and 2023.
Credit cards, on the other hand, continue to be at the top of the most used payment methods, with 46 % of purchasing volumes. Debit cards follow with 23 %.
Mobile payments, or any purchase made via an intelligent telephone application, including those related to a credit card, gain popularity.
Mobile transactions represented almost 5 % of purchases in 2024, an increase of a few percentage points compared to the previous year.
If these trends are maintained, the Bank of Canada suggested that the preferences of young consumers could evolve towards the detention of digital portfolios rather than physical, which could lead to a drop in the demand for liquid money.
The Central Bank mentioned that it was studying the way in which the behaviors and preferences of Canadians in terms of liquid money influence its role in the management of payment systems in the country.
