BERLIN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- In the first half of 2019, the Bundesbank registered around 27,600 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of 1.6 million euros (1.78 million U.S. dollars), the German central bank announced on Friday.
The number of counterfeit euro notes had risen by 2.5 percent compared to the second half of 2018, according to the Bundesbank.
"In terms of figures, there are around seven counterfeit banknotes per 10,000 inhabitants per year," said Johannes Beermann, member of the Bundesbank's executive board.
The number of counterfeited 50-euro banknotes continued to decline in the first half of the year, accounting for 65 percent of the total, compared with around 72 percent in the second half of 2018, the central bank announced.
"For the second half of 2019, we expect falling counterfeit money figures, as the investigating authorities have recently achieved significant success against international counterfeit rings," Beermann noted.
According to the European Central Bank (ECB), the number of counterfeit banknotes in circulation in Europe had been declining in the first half of 2019.
At the end of May, the ECB introduced new 100- and 200-euro notes with improved security features that aimed to reduce the number of counterfeits.
With the new hundreds and two hundred, the second generation of euro banknotes was completed. New fives, tens, twenties and fifties are already in circulation while the ECB's governing council decided to no longer produce 500-euro notes.
The German Bundesbank, however, found in its recent monthly report that only a small proportion of cash was misused in the so-called shadow economy.
"There is still a lack of empirical evidence that tax evasion and other criminal activities can be effectively combated through measures such as the abolition of high denomination banknotes or the introduction of cash payment ceilings," noted the Bundesbank.
