Hong Kong's cash pile keeps growing — and nobody measures how much of it gets spent
Currency in circulation rose from HK$208.9 billion in 2009 to HK$672.6 billion in July 2026, and its share of M2 went from 5.82% to 7.25%. What Hong Kong does not have is any official measure of how much of payment is made in cash — so only half of this question can be answered here.
Is Hong Kong’s cash pile still growing?
Yes, steadily. Legal tender notes and coins in circulation rose from HK$208,915 million at the end of 2009 to HK$614,715 million at the end of 2024, and HK$672,602 million in July 2026 (HKMA).
The share of that cash inside M2 rose too.
Is Hong Kong’s cash pile still growing?
Currency in circulation (HK$ m)
Shared linear scale from zero. Selected entries from the table below. Its dates, units, definitions and limitations still apply.
| End of period | Currency in circulation (HK$ m) | Of which held by the public | M2 (HK$ m) | Cash ÷ M2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2009 | 208,915 | 194,319 | 3,587,717 | 5.82% |
| December 2014 | 353,510 | 330,086 | 5,225,773 | 6.76% |
| December 2019 | 529,859 | 497,300 | 7,438,789 | 7.12% |
| December 2024 | 614,715 | 585,154 | 8,474,517 | 7.25% |
| July 2026 | 672,602 | 647,042 | — | — |
Cash did not merely grow in Hong Kong dollars. It grew faster than the monetary aggregate around it, for fifteen years.
The concept used here is legal tender notes and coins in circulation, which includes cash held by authorized institutions. HKMA also publishes the portion in the hands of the public, shown above as a separate column; the two are not interchangeable. In the comparison table below, Taiwan and Vietnam use the public-holdings concept while the other seven use the in-circulation concept, so the table can be read for direction but not for level. The blank for July 2026 is because this site's M2 series for Hong Kong ends in June 2026, not because the value is zero.
The other half of the question cannot be answered here
The natural follow-up is whether people are actually paying with that cash. For Hong Kong there is no official answer.
HKMA publishes counts of payment cards in issue and of stored value facility transactions. The Census and Statistics Department publishes household and demographic statistics. Neither publishes a share of payments made in cash, on a transaction-count basis or on a value basis. That gap was checked against HKMA’s data and statistics portal and the Census and Statistics Department’s published series.
This matters for how the first table should be read. In Thailand the equivalent statistic exists, and it shows cash falling from 86.8% of transactions in 2021 to 66% in 2023 while the cash stock rose — which is what makes the “used less, held more” reading defensible there. In Hong Kong the stock side is well measured and the payment side is not measured at all, so the same reading is plausible but not demonstrated.
We have not substituted a consultancy estimate for the missing statistic. A number from a card network or a consulting firm would fill the cell without answering the question.
Does every market look like this?
No, and that is the most interesting result of this comparison.
| Market | Dec 2009 | Dec 2019 | Dec 2024 | Concept |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiwan | 3.12% | 4.61% | 5.17% | held by public |
| Hong Kong | 5.82% | 7.12% | 7.25% | in circulation |
| Malaysia | — | 5.85% | 6.89% | in circulation |
| Singapore | — | — | 8.06% | in circulation |
| Thailand | 9.85% | 9.29% | 10.10% | in circulation |
| Japan | 11.19% | 11.32% | 10.23% | in circulation |
| Vietnam | 14.01% | 11.33% | 9.10% | outside banks |
| Philippines | 15.01% | 13.66% | 14.85% | in circulation |
Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia rose. Vietnam fell from 14.01% to 9.10% and Japan from 11.19% to 10.23%; Japan’s banknote stock itself peaked in December 2024 and has fallen since. “Cash is being hoarded everywhere” is not what the data says.
Differences between markets track the settings in which cash is used: how far payment infrastructure reaches, the size of the informal sector, tourist cash flows, and how large-denomination notes are issued. Hong Kong is also unusual in having three note-issuing banks rather than a single issuer, which affects how the series is compiled but not what it measures. This paragraph interprets the differences; the figures in the tables are observations from published statistics.
What to check when reading these numbers
Start with the concept. “Currency issued”, “currency in circulation” and “currency held by the public” are three different numbers, separated by the cash sitting in bank vaults. The tables label each row for that reason, and across markets only the direction is comparable.
Then check the denominator. A payment-side cash share has a defined set of transactions underneath it; the stock-side share has M2 underneath it. Neither confirms the other, and where one of them is missing the other does not stand in for it.
Finally, do not read cash ÷ M2 as something else. It is the mathematical share of cash within a monetary aggregate. It is not a measure of “true inflation” and it is not a measure of the shadow economy.
Questions & answers
How much cash is in circulation in Hong Kong?
HK$672,602 million in July 2026, of which HK$647,042 million was held outside the banking system and HK$25,560 million by authorized institutions. At the end of 2009 the total was HK$208,915 million.
Is cash being used less in Hong Kong?
There is no official statistic that answers this. HKMA publishes counts of payment cards and stored value facility transactions, but neither it nor the Census and Statistics Department publishes a share of payments made in cash. Thailand, Taiwan and Japan are the only three of the nine markets here that publish such a measure.
What does a rising cash-to-M2 share mean?
That cash grew faster than the monetary aggregate as a whole. Hong Kong went from 5.82% in 2009 to 7.25% in 2024. It is the mathematical share of cash within M2, and it is not a measure of true inflation or of the shadow economy.
Do other markets show the same pattern?
No. Taiwan rose from 3.12% to 5.17% and Malaysia from 5.03% to 6.89%, but Vietnam fell from 14.01% to 9.10% and Japan from 11.19% to 10.23%. Across the nine markets the direction is split.