Central Banks and Cash Round-Up

In this periodic series of articles covering cash information in central bank annual reports, this month we take a look Down Under, with a review of the reports from Australia and New Zealand.

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)

Cash in circulation: with more banknotes being returned to RBA ($4.2 billion) than purchased by the four main commercial banks ($3.6 billion) under the Banknote Distribution Framework, the value of banknotes in circulation declined by 0.5% over 2023/24. This largely reflected a decline in the circulation of $50 banknotes.

Nonetheless, the value of banknotes in circulation remained high – A$100.8 billion at the end of June 2024, equivalent to around 4% of GDP. There are currently almost 2 billion banknotes in circulation.

The proportion of all banknotes in circulation that are part of the Next Generation Banknote (NGB) series (the saturation rate) increased modestly over 2023/24. NGB $20 and $50 banknote saturation increased by around 5% and 3% from the previous year to represent just under half of these banknotes on issue.