One in Four Households Keep Cash at Home, Survey Finds

One in four households in Korea store cash at home, with the stored amount averaging around W700,000, and W50,000 notes accounting for most of the cash, according to a recent survey (US$1=W1,170).

The Bank of Korea said Wednesday that its survey found that 27 percent of respondents kept an average of W693,000 in their homes or offices for emergency use. The bank conducted the survey of 1,100 householders nationwide in October last year.

Some 80.7 percent of the stored cash was in W50,000 bills (averaging of W600,000), followed by W10,000 notes (18 percent), W1,000 bills (3.9 percent) and W5,000 bills (1 percent).

Older or higher-earning self-employed people kept more spare cash than other groups. People in their 50s and 60s or above stored an average of W813,000 each, followed by those in their 40s (W570,000), 30s (W470,000) and 20s (W367,000).