CRI听力:Sweden Moves towards a Cashless Society

Niklas Arvidsson, an associate professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, conducted the research.

He says cash is increasingly disappearing from the Swedish economy:

"Previously I have always said that around the year 2030 Sweden will, in effect, become cashless - meaning that cash will cease to play any real role in the society. It might still exist in theory but would not play any financial role. But when I look at the developments over the last two years, then I actually think that it will happen faster. We might see it happening in ten years, or even faster than that."

The Swedish Krona, the country's national currency-has been used since 1873.
However, latest stats suggest that around 80-billion Swedish krona are currently in circulation as cash - down from 106 billion krona just six years ago.

This is despite annual growth in the economy.

An explosion in card payments is cited as the main reason for cash falling out of favor.

According to the Central Bank of Sweden, payments made by cards increased ten-fold between 1998 and 2013.

At the same time, mobile payments have also increased dramatically.

Kungsaengen, a bed store in central Stockholm, stopped accepting cash in 2012.
Karin Spaeng, marketing manager of the store says a cashless shop might cut security risks:

"We thought cash was a security risk. Our staff quite often work alone in the stores, they work until 7pm or 8pm, close up on their own and leave through the back door in the dark. It is a bit scary. So it is a security risk. It is reassuring for them to know that there is no cash in the store."

But the trend towards a cashless society also brings problems, especially to older people.

The Swedish National Pensioners' Organization says many of its members are falling behind in the increasingly cashless society.

Joeran Rubensson is the chairman of the organization:

"This is a big problem. There are currently over one million people in Sweden without daily access to a computer, many of those are older people. We are trying to run courses to help pensioners adapt to the new society - because it is actually easier and better. But I think there will be a relatively large number of people that are left behind for a long time. "

Joeran suggests not changing too quickly and removing some methods of payments, so there is not a clash between older and younger people in the country.

For CRI I'm Wang Mengzhen.