Australian dollar currency notes on issue crosses 100 billion

By Sophia Rodrigues

The amount of Australian dollar currency notes on issue crossed the A$100 billion mark this week, rising to A$100.153 billion as of Oct 20. It is up a whopping A$17 billion since February last year.

Demand for currency notes has been in two phases since the start of the pandemic. The first phase lasted till the end of December 2020 when the notes on issue rose to A$98.5 billion from A$83 billion at the end of February. It then began dropping until early July, falling to A$95.4 billion. The second phase coincided with the start of the Delta variant of Covid-19 and since then the amount of notes on issue has risen every single week.

Meanwhile, the RBA's balance inched further towards the A$600 billon mark -- A$591 billion as of October 20.