Digital Transactions Constitute 10% of Total Liquidity

The share of digital transactions in Iran has reached 10% of the total volume of liquidity in the country by the end of the seventh month of the current fiscal year on Oct. 22.

Shaparak, Iran’s payment and settlements network, announced this as part of its latest monthly report announced by IBENA.

According to the entity affiliated with the Central Bank of Iran, the total value of digital transactions–consisting of online and POS transactions–conducted in the seventh month of the year stood at more than 1.43 quadrillion rials ($31.82 billion).

As the total volume of liquidity stood at 14.03 quadrillion rials ($311.77 billion) in the same month, electronic transactions accounted for 10.21% of the liquidity.

That is while the volume of liquidity stood at 13.89 quadrillion rials ($308.6 billion) at the end of the first half of the current year on Sept. 22, indicating that transactions during this period amounted to 1.53 quadrillion rials ($34 billion) and registered an 11.07% share of liquidity.

As the seventh month saw a 6.89% contraction in the value of digital transactions, it registered a 0.14% decline in the ratio of digital transactions to liquidity compared to the previous month.

This is while the first six months posted continuous hikes in the ratio, as it remained just shy of 8% by the end of the first month of the year on April 20, approaching the range of higher than 10% from the next month.

Shaparak’s data of the past five years indicate that the fiscal 2014-15 saw the highest ratio of electronic transactions to liquidity near 14%.

By the end of the seventh month, the value of banknotes and coins stood at 343.6 trillion rials ($7.635 billion) or 2.45% of liquidity. That ratio stood at 2.72% at the end of the first month of the year and has followed a declining trajectory ever since.

The decreasing trend also manifested in Shaparak’s data of the last five years, which witnessed a downtrend except for a handful of months when it registered a slight increase. The entity’s data at the end of the first month of the fiscal 2013-14 shows that the ratio stood just higher than 6% back then.