the same survey found that consumers have shifted away from cash as electronic payments have become more convenient or owing to concerns about the risk of infection, advice not to pay with cash or because cash was becoming less widely accepted ( chart 2 ). chart 2 main reasons for changing payment behaviour during the pandemic source : ecb. it was obviously crucial for the eurosystem to address people ’ s fears of becoming infected through the use of cash. we therefore commissioned analyses by top - tier laboratories as early as march 2020. the results confirmed that the risk of transmission via banknotes and coins is very low, and thus cash remains safe to use. overall, the coronavirus mainly spreads via aerosols and airborne transmission, and surfaces in any case play only a very minor role. however, despite the significant drop in the use of cash for payments, we have seen a parallel, huge rise in the demand for euro banknotes over the past year : an increase of €190 billion – or €550 per capita – between march 2020 and may 2021. to put this in perspective, if we compare issuance volumes in the spring of 2020 with the average volumes of the previous five years, up to 4 % more euros were issued. the second phase of lockdowns triggered likewise strong banknote demand, with the difference from the expected growth path rising further to 8 % by the end of 2020 ( chart 3 ). chart 3 total value of banknote circulation in 2020 compared with the previous five ( non - crisis ) years ( 2015 - 19 ) ( index, january = 1 ) source : ecb. one possible explanation for this apparent paradox – increasing demand for banknotes while cash payments decline – is that during the crisis people turned to cash as a tool to manage uncertainty. research shows that at the beginning of the pandemic, consumers – especially those with low income – cut spending and increased their holdings of liquid assets. [ 5 ] and cash is the most liquid asset for those looking to satisfy their heightened liquidity preference. pre - crisis trends in the use of banknotes also point to the role of cash as a store of value as much as a means of payment. recent estimates suggest that, before the pandemic, only around 20 % of the overall amount of euro banknotes in circulation were actively used for transaction purposes within the euro area ( chart 4 ). [ 6 ] the vast majority of cash, around one trillion euro, is held as an asset and used only

as commercial paper ( cp ), corporate bonds, exchange - traded funds ( etfs ), and japan real estate investment trusts ( j - reits ). that has been a measure, through influencing longer - term interest rates and risk premiums, to urge the effects of monetary easing to spread steadily over to firms ’ funding costs. third, the bank has been aiming at 1 percent in terms of the year - on - year growth rate in consumer prices for the time being and made a commitment to continuing its powerful monetary easing through the pursuit of virtually zero interest rate policy and purchases of financial assets until it judges the 1 percent goal to be in sight. by a central bank making a commitment to continuing monetary easing for a long period, there will be momentum for pushing down the entire yield curve, including longer term yields. background to the enhancement of monetary easing at the monetary policy meeting held last week, the bank further enhanced monetary easing. specifically, first, the bank decided to increase the total size of the program by about 10 trillion yen, from about 70 trillion yen to about 80 trillion yen. the completion of the purchases under the program was extended for six months and the purchases will continue until around the end of 2013. second, the bank decided to remove the minimum bidding bis central bankers ’ speeches yield, which used to be set at 0. 1 percent per annum, for the outright purchases in order to ensure smooth purchase of the japanese government bonds ( jgbs ). looking at the developments in economic activity and prices that led to the decisions, as explained earlier, while overseas economies have moved somewhat deeper into a deceleration phase, the pick - up in economic activity has come to a pause and is expected to level off more or less for the time being. the year - on - year rate of change in the cpi excluding volatile food is to hover at around 0 percent for the time being. in the meantime, attention should be paid to the effects of financial and foreign exchange market developments on economic activity and prices. until recently, the bank had judged that, from a longer term perspective, japan ’ s economy would return to the moderate recovery path as domestic demand remained firm and overseas economies gradually emerged from the deceleration phase. and, the year - on - year rate of change in the cpi excluding volatile food would start to gradually increase and was likely to reach 1 percent in the not so distant future from fiscal 2014 onward. however, taking into account the current developments in economic activity