Meeting the cash demand

Comparable to previous years, the number and value of cash payments continued to decrease in 2003. Cash payments accounted for just 0.6% of the number of payments made via banks and 0.1% of the value. Year-on-year, the number of cash payments dropped by a fifth. This tendency is in line with the goal set in the Strategic Development Plan of Eesti Pank.

Banknotes and coins issued

Banknotes and coins in circulation by value

Banknotes and coins in circulation by number

The total amount of cash in circulation as at 31 December 2003 was 8,324.1 million kroons. 14.2% of cash in circulation, i.e. 1,184.4 million kroons was in the vaults of Estonian credit institutions and savings and loan associations, and 7,139.7 million kroons, i.e. 85.8%, in circulation outside these two.

In the past two years, the amount of cash in circulation has increased relatively slowly - by 0.6% in 2002 and 2.6% in 2003. This can be attributed to the faster growth of non-cash payment instruments. Similar to 2002, the structure of cash in circulation changed little in 2003. The amount of all banknotes increased slightly, with the exception of 50-kroon notes, which have a relatively low demand, and 1-kroon notes, which are no longer issued.

The number of coins in circulation exceeded 300 million, which brings the per capita number of coins to over 220. The number of 5-kroon coins decreased as people prefer 5-kroon banknotes instead, and the number of 5-sent coins fell as well since these are no longer issued.

The average value of a banknote in circulation changed little over the year (down by 0.9 kroons) and stood at 130.4 kroons at the end of 2003. The average value of a coin in circulation was 30.7 sents, i.e. 0.3 sents higher than in 2002. This can be attributed to an increase in the number of 1-kroon coins in circulation.

Cash circulation

In 2003, Eesti Pank issued 8,495.8 million kroons worth of cash to credit institutions and received 8,282.8 million kroons in return. The number of banknotes issued was 88.9 million and the number of coins 23.1 million. 86.8 million banknotes and 0.5 million coins were returned to Eesti Pank.

Cash turnover between Eesti Pank and credit institutions decreased in 2003, particularly the turnover of higher denomination banknotes; the turnover of 2-, 5- and 10-kroon banknotes increased. Therefore, the volume of banknotes decreased less than the value of issued and returned banknotes. The circulation period of banknotes became longer as a rule.

All banknotes returned to Eesti Pank are sorted. Worn-out banknotes are destroyed and the rest are returned to circulation. In 2004, 6 million banknotes, with a total value of 832.6 million kroons, were withdrawn from circulation.