50,000-won notes. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The amount of bills and coins that the central bank discarded due to damage declined nearly 40 percent as people increased the use of non-cash payments for consumption, data showed Friday.
A total of 403.5 million damaged bills and coins were discarded last year, down 37.2 percent from 642.6 million tallied a year earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea.
The decline is attributed to the increased use of non-cash payments, including credit cards and mobile payment, amid the prolonged pandemic that caused people to refrain from going out and using hard currency.
The central bank destroyed 344.2 million bills last year, with 1,000- (US$0.83) and 10,000-won bills accounting for more than 90 percent.
The face value of the discarded money last year came to 2.04 trillion won, the data showed. Of that, bills were worth 2.03 trillion won, with coins valued at 5.73 billion won, the data showed.
The BOK did not disclose how much it spent to replace the discarded bills and coins last year.
(Yonhap)
