713 counterfeit euro banknotes were reported to the Central Bank of Malta in the second half of last year, down 25% from the 951 counterfeits found in the first half of the same year.
The bank said that the total of counterfeits withdrawn from circulation in the whole of 2012 was 1,664, a 7.8% increase on the previous year’s level.
When compared with the estimated number of genuine euro banknotes in circulation in Malta (estimated at around 18.5 million for the second half of 2012), the proportion of euro counterfeits remained insignificant, the bank said. It was also very low when compared to the number of counterfeits seized in the euro area in the same period, which according to the ECB amounted to 280,000 pieces.
As in the euro area, the middle denominations (€20, €50 and €100) continued to be the most counterfeited denominations found locally, amounting to 95.7% of all counterfeits.