Photo from UNIAN
Old-style year-2006 500-hryvnia and 200-hryvnia bills were most often counterfeited last year.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) says the number of counterfeit banknotes in the national currency, the hryvnia, in 2020 grew to 5.5 notes per 1 million genuine ones from three in 2019, but the figure remains stably low.
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"The monitoring of removed national currency banknotes from circulation in Ukraine shows that at the end of last year, there were about 5.5 counterfeit banknotes per 1 million genuine hryvnia banknotes (about three at the end of 2019)," the report said.
The growth in counterfeiting of hryvnia banknotes in 2020 was due to an increase in cybercriminals' activity against the background of growing amount of cash in circulation, which took place over the spread of the coronavirus.
Old-style year-2006 500-hryvnia and 200-hryvnia bills were most often counterfeited in 2020. They accounted for about 60% and 29%, respectively, of the total number of counterfeits removed from circulation.
The share of the counterfeit U.S. dollar banknotes in the total amount of counterfeit foreign currency bills removed from circulation was 86%, that of euros was 12%, while British pounds and Russian rubles accounted for 2%.
Meanwhile, U.S. 100 banknotes, EUR 50 and EUR 500 banknotes, as well as those of RUB 5,000 and RUB 1,000 denomination were the most popular with counterfeiters.
The National Bank reiterated that counterfeit banknotes are seized without reimbursement of their value.
Noteworthy, the number of counterfeit hryvnia banknotes grew from 2.5 per 1 million genuine ones in 2018 to three in 2019.