Italy remains at the tail end in the use of payment systems other than cash, which remains the preferred means of payment and shopping by Italian households. Our country, despite the progress recorded during the pandemic by COVID-19, is at the bottom of the ranking in the Euro area for the use of credit cards, credit transfers, digital currency, checks and other electronic means. With 199 payments per capita, Italy is last in the Eurozone according to data for 2023, while Luxembourg (8,738 transactions per citizen), Lithuania (1,041) and the Netherlands (670) are on the podium. Besides in the Belpaese, cash is still particularly popular in Greece, where cashless transactions number only 230, and then in Malta (234), Slovakia (251), Slovenia (251) and Spain (289). The report by the Unimpresa Study Center shows that, from fourth place down, the ranking of the most advanced countries in terms of the use of electronic or digital payments is as follows: Ireland (661 transactions per capita per year), Finland (598), Estonia (487), Belgium (483), France (424), Latvia (389), Germany (328), Austria (304) and Portugal; Cyprus is not fully captured by official statistics.
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