The immediate policy action taken by central banks, governments and Parliaments across the world stopped this “free fall” and laid the foundations for a gradual recovery in Europe and elsewhere over the course of 2009.
The end consumers ultimately have to bear the costs of payment transactions, since the other parties take these into account in their price calculation and pass them on to the customer. It is extremely difficult to quantify whether notes and coins or cashless payment instruments are cheaper from a macroeconomic perspective. Research on this has, to date, not arrived at a clear conclusion.