The coronavirus pandemic has left Italy’s economy in a bad state, with the latest predictions foreseeing a -9% in GDP in 2020. At the same time, the online economy has limited the fall, leading to a +15% in the use of contactless payments and +80% of mobile payments compared to 2019. For the first time, Italy’s historic resistance to electronic transactions might be at a turning point. This is one of the reasons behind the country’s government decision to draft a plan in the direction of a ‘cashless society’, which is also meant to counter undeclared economic activity and tax evasion - a phenomenon that in Italy is worth 12% of the country’s GDP.
Even before the pandemic, Italy was not in good shape: it is at the 24th place out of 27 countries in the EU for number of digital payments, while about 80% of all transactions are still made in cash. Now, COVID-19 has provided a big push in the direction of an enhanced use of electronic money, also because it allows no contact with objects (currently for payments up to €25 ($29) there is no need to insert a pin code) and is therefore perceived as safer.
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Even before the pandemic, Italy was not in good shape: it is at the 24th place out of 27 countries in the EU for number of digital payments, while about 80% of all transactions are still made in cash. Now, COVID-19 has provided a big push in the direction of an enhanced use of electronic money, also because it allows no contact with objects (currently for payments up to €25 ($29) there is no need to insert a pin code) and is therefore perceived as safer.
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Inclusion works with cash
