A total of 331,000 counterfeit euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation in the first half of this year, 6.2 per cent less than in the second half of last year.
Overall, the number of counterfeits remained very low compared with the number of genuine banknotes in circulation during that period – over 16 billion, the European Central Bank said.
|
Period |
2011/1 |
2011/2 |
2012/1 |
2012/2 |
2013/1 |
2013/2 |
2014/1 |
|
Number of counterfeits |
296,000 |
310,000 |
251,000 |
280,000 |
317,000 |
353,000 |
331,000 |
A breakdown, by denomination, of the counterfeits withdrawn from circulation in the first half of 2014 is provided below, together with information on their location.
|
Denomination |
€5 |
€10 |
€20 |
€50 |
€100 |
€200 |
€500 |
|
Percentage breakdown |
1.2% |
4.6% |
46.5% |
34.7% |
10.9% |
1.3% |
0.8% |
The €20 and €50 continued to be the most counterfeited banknotes. They accounted for 81 per cent of the counterfeits, a slight increase over the previous half-year.
A total 98 per cent of the counterfeits were found in euro area countries, 1.9 per cent were found in EU states outside the euro area and 0.1 per cent in other parts of the world.