The European Central Bank (ECB) has reported the withdrawal from circulation for 2022 of nearly 376,000 counterfeit euro banknotes, the second lowest proportion recorded since the introduction of euro banknotes.
According to the European monetary institution, “the probability of receiving a counterfeit is very low, the number of counterfeit banknotes remaining very small compared to the number of genuine euro banknotes in circulation”.
Even if this proportion is exceptionally low, notes an ECB note, the number of counterfeit banknotes increased by 8.4% compared to 2021, the year in which the proportion of counterfeit banknotes fell to its lowest level since the introduction of the euro.
This increase also reflects the recovery of economic activity in 2022, after the lifting of most restrictions linked to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. The 20 and 50 euro notes remained the most counterfeited values, together accounting for just under two-thirds of the total.
It should be noted that 96.6% of counterfeit banknotes were seized in the countries of the euro zone, against 2.7% in the Member States of the European Union which do not belong to the euro zone and 0.7% in the other regions of the world.