What is your personal opinion on the Chinese CBDC? A good or rather a bad role model for the euro?
Burkhard Balz: The People’s Bank of China has been working on a digital version of the renminbi for some time, so we at the Bundesbank and the European Central Bank are also keeping a close eye on the progress there. However, from my point of view, the signs and, above all, the motivation in China are different than here in Europe. That’s why China doesn’t really serve as a role model for us in the Eurosystem.
To what extent has the corona pandemic influenced payment behavior? Electronic payment methods should certainly have benefited from this, right?
Burkhard Balz: Yes, the trend has continued that the importance of cash as a means of payment continues to decrease. Among the cashless means of payment, the debit card is the leader, which is used for around a quarter of all payments. In addition to the corona pandemic, in which many retailers actively asked their customers to pay by card, the increasing shift in consumption from the shop counter to the Internet also played an important role in the increase in cashless payment transactions. For example, the share of internet sales in total sales has increased by 18 percentage points compared to our 2017 study.
Central banks and especially the Deutsche Bundesbank hold gold as a reserve. Why?
Burkhard Balz: Gold reserves are held as a liquidity reserve and to diversify currency reserve holdings. In an emergency, gold stocks can be pledged as collateral or exchanged for foreign exchange, i.e. other currencies. Gold also enjoys a high reputation among the population as a tangible asset and is the only asset that has no counterparty risk.
You can read the full interview with Burkhard Balz in the current issue of BTC-ECHO Magazine.
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