Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CASH

Average German ‘hoards €1,364 in cash’

Germany may be getting more digital, with a growing number of establishments accepting cards. But the country still is crazy for cash, a survey published Monday from the Bundesbank shows.

Published: 27 July 2020 15:04 CEST
Average German 'hoards €1,364 in cash'
Photo: DPA

The average German carries a total of €107 in their wallet, and has a total of €1,364 in bank safe deposit boxes.

The amount of hoarded cash varies widely among the population, with some people carrying barely any extra cash, and others quite a bit.

Self-employed, older people and high-earners were the most likely to keep a lot of cash tucked away. 

READ ALSO: Will the coronavirus pandemic speed up the end of cash in Germany?

Bundesbank board member Johannes Beermann said that younger people tend to store less cash simply because they have less of it.

So why exactly do Germans store cash rather than, say, keeping it in a bank account?

From the point of view of 58 percent of those surveyed, the low interest rates are a reason to store notes and coins on a larger scale.

Cash is also a common means of payment, 55 percent said. In third place among the reasons is a lack of confidence in the security and resilience of the technical infrastructure, for example, fear of hacker attacks. 

Other possible motives cited by respondents who hoard cash were “no fees” and “anonymity”.

In addition, 12 percent of those surveyed name “hiding assets from the state” as a possible reason.

The Bundesbank defines hoarding as the storage of cash for a period of two weeks or more.

Whether people's behaviour has changed during the coronavirus crisis is not clear from the representative survey of 2000 people from 2018. There was no follow-up survey.

Cash is seen by many as a safe haven in turbulent times. Especially at the beginning of the crisis in Germany in March, according to other data from the Central Bank, the demand for notes and coins had risen significantly. 

Accordingly, there were also slight increases in the net issuance of cash in the following months. 

However, many businesses also began accepting card payments for the first time, as people worried about the hygiene of bank notes and coins.

READ ALSO: Cash loving Germany switches to contactless payments due to coronavirus fears

Key vocabulary

Wallet – Geldbeutel

Bank safe deposit boxes – (die) Bankschließfächern

Hoarding – (die) Hortung

safe haven – sicherer Hafen

We're aiming to help our readers improve their German by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Let us know.

 

 

Member comments

  1. I just love the ‘key vocabulary’ stuff at the end of articles . . .well done to The Local. But just one query re the above list. I’ve never heard the word ‘Geldbeutel’ used for wallet. Rather everyone seems to use ‘Portmonnaie’ but maybe it’s because where I live in Baden-Württemberg the French Alsace is only 15km away!

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

HEALTH

Could there be a new wave of Covid-19 in Germany this autumn?

It’s back again: amid sinking temperatures, the incidence of Covid-19 has been slowly rising in Germany. But is this enough to merit worrying about the virus?

Published: 20 September 2023 12:05 CEST
Updated: 20 September 2023 22:22 CEST
Could there be a new wave of Covid-19 in Germany this autumn?

More people donning face masks in supermarkets, friends cancelling plans last minute due to getting sick with Covid-19. We might have seen some of those familiar reminders recently that the coronavirus is still around, but could there really be a resurgence of the virus like we experienced during the pandemic years?

According to virologists, the answer seems to be ‘maybe’: since July, the number of people newly infected with Covid-19 has been slowly rising from a very low level.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), nine people per 100,000 inhabitants became newly infected in Germany last week. A year ago, there were only around 270 reported cases.

Various Corona variants are currently on the loose in the country. According to the RKI,  the EG.5 (also called Eris) and XBB.1.16 lines were each detected in the week ending September 3rd with a share of just under 23 percent. 

The highly mutated variant BA.2.86 (Pirola), which is currently under observation by the World Health Organisation (WHO), also arrived in the country this week, according to RKI. 

High number of unreported case

The RKI epidemiologists also warned about a high number of unreported cases since hardly any testing is done. They pointed out that almost half of all registered sewage treatment plants report an increasing viral load in wastewater tests.

The number of hospital admissions has also increased slightly, but are still a far cry from the occupation rate amid the pandemic. Last week it was two per 100,000 inhabitants. In the intensive care units, only 1.2 percent of all beds are occupied by Covid-19 patients.

Still, a good three-quarters (76.4 percent) of people in Germany have been vaccinated at least twice and thus have basic immunity, reported RKI. 

Since Monday, doctors’ offices have been vaccinating with the adapted vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer, available to anyone over 12 years old, with a vaccine for small children set to be released the following week and one for those between 5 and 11 to come out October 2nd.

But Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has so far only recommended that people over 60 and those with pre-existing conditions get vaccinated.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Who should get a Covid jab this autumn in Germany?

“The pandemic is over, the virus remains,” he said. “We cannot predict the course of coming waves of corona, but it is clear that older people and people with pre-existing conditions remain at higher risk of becoming severely ill from Covid-19”

The RKI also recommended that people with a cold voluntarily wear a mask. Anyone exhibiting cough, cold, sore throat or other symptoms of a respiratory illness should voluntarily stay at home for three to five days and take regular corona self-tests. 

However, further measures such as contact restrictions are not necessary, he said.

One of many diseases

As of this autumn, Covid-19 could be one of many respiratory diseases. As with influenza, there are no longer absolute infection figures for coronavirus.

Saarbrücken pharmacist Thorsten Lehr told German broadcaster ZDF that self-protection through vaccinations, wearing a mask and getting tested when symptoms appear are prerequisites for surviving the Covid autumn well. 

Only a new, more aggressive mutation could completely turn the game around, he added.

On April 7th of this year, Germany removed the last of its over two-year long coronavirus restrictions, including mask-wearing in some public places.

READ ALSO: German doctors recommend Covid-19 self-tests amid new variant

SHOW COMMENTS