Market News

From Nicholas Anthony, Policy Analyst, Cato Institute; Fellow, Human Rights Foundation, Washington, DC, US

In his guest column “Thailand policy can tell us about future of money” (Markets Insight, August 7) Eswar Prasad claims that “the Bank of Thailand and other central banks experimenting with [central bank digital currencies] assert that it would coexist with physical currency”. However, many central banks have said quite the opposite.

The central banks of The Bahamas, the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, Lebanon, Nigeria, Peru, Rwanda, and the Solomon Islands have all said their goal is to go cashless and that CBDCs are a way to get there.

Even the Bank of Thailand has said that it predicts a CBDC would partially replace cash (and existing forms of digital money). Whether the intention is to cut down on the costs of printing cash or to cut out alternatives that could prove to be a barrier to implementing policies like negative interest rates, these central banks have made no secret of the fact they believe the clock is ticking for cash.