Tunisia's Cash Economy: Record Banknotes, Fading Cheques

Tunisia's cash economy keeps growing while the rest of the world moves to digital payments. According to Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) data, banknotes and coins in circulation passed TND 30 billion in August 2026, an all-time high. The reasons range from a cheque reform that pushed buyers back to cash, to a large informal sector and low bank account ownership.

Record cash in circulation

The BCT publishes the amount of currency in circulation in its daily indicators. The trend over the past two years is steep:

• TND 22 billion in early December 2024;
• TND 26.1 billion in early December 2025, up 18.2% in a year;
• TND 29.7 billion on 26 May 2026, a record at the time, according to Le Courrier de l'Atlas;
• TND 30.04 billion on 21 August 2026, compared with TND 25.9 billion a year earlier, an increase of nearly 16%.

Cash demand peaks around Ramadan, the two Eids, summer and the school year. But the seasonal pattern does not explain why each peak is higher than the last. Le Courrier de l'Atlas reported that some banks had to put older banknotes back into circulation to meet demand.

The cheque reform pushed buyers back to cash

The single biggest change in Tunisian payments in recent years is Law No. 2024-41 of 2 August 2024, which reformed the cheque regime. Its main provisions came into force on 2 February 2025. The law sought to turn the cheque back into a means of immediate payment rather than a form of informal credit. It introduced a new cheque format, limits on chequebooks and the TuniChèque platform, which lets a payee check in real time whether funds are available.

The effect was immediate. As Al-Monitor reported in March 2025, many merchants stopped accepting cheques, and households that bought goods in instalments with post-dated cheques lost that option. According to the BCT's 2025 annual report:

• the number of cheques fell by 67.5% and their value by 58.8%;
• bills of exchange (lettres de change) rose 161% in number, as businesses looked for another credit instrument;
• transfers rose 42.3% in value, to TND 79.6 billion.

Part of the activity the cheque used to carry went to transfers and bills. Another part went to cash.

A cash-payment rule was lifted

Since the 2019 Finance Law, settling the sale of real estate, a business or a vehicle in cash for more than TND 5,000 had consequences: notaries could not draw up the deed, registration was blocked and a penalty of 20% of the cash amount applied. Article 54 of the 2026 Finance Law repealed that provision from 1 January 2026, citing simpler administrative procedures, Managers reported. The tax administration said other cash-related rules remain in force.

The repeal has been criticised. In February 2026, economist Ridha Chkandali, writing on his Facebook page as reported by La Presse, called the cheque law, electronic invoicing rules and the end of the TND 5,000 rule poorly designed and the main causes of the surge in cash. Tax expert Mohamed Salah Ayari, quoted by Tuniscope, also linked the repeal to higher cash use.

Informality and the unbanked

Cash is also the natural currency of informal activity. A UNDP and ILO study published in 2022 estimated that all informal activities, including agriculture, accounted for about 35.2% of GDP in 2020, and that informal employment covered 26.8% of workers, more than 910,000 jobs. Those figures are dated, but there is no sign the informal sector has shrunk since.

Many Tunisians simply have no alternative. Le Courrier de l'Atlas estimated that only 36% to 40% of adults are banked. Our article on financial inclusion in Tunisia looks at the World Bank's Findex data in detail.

The costs of so much cash are well known:

• Less traceability, which makes tax evasion and smuggling easier and hides real economic activity from statistics;
• Lower bank deposits, which reduces the liquidity banks can lend to businesses;
• Handling costs for merchants, banks and the central bank, which must print and distribute more notes.

The cashless push: progress from a small base

Digital payments are growing quickly. The BCT's 2025 annual report counted:

• 8.4 million mobile payment transactions (+80.5%), worth TND 1,769 million (+58.6%), and 469,000 wallets (+26.8%);
• TND 1,375 million in online card payments (+31%);
• 164.9 million card payments (+8.9%), worth TND 29.5 billion.

These are strong growth rates, but mobile payments remain tiny next to the TND 30 billion in notes and coins. Wallet providers and payment institutions are covered in our guide to mobile payments in Tunisia, and online commerce, still dominated by cash on delivery, in e-commerce payments.

What would make Tunisians leave cash?

For fintech founders, the lesson from the cheque reform is that users do not move to digital payments just because an older instrument becomes harder to use. They move when the alternative is as convenient, accepted everywhere and cheap. In practice, that means:

• Acceptance: QR codes and wallet payments in small shops, not only in large retailers;
• Interoperability: instant transfers between banks, La Poste and wallets, the subject of our article on instant payments;
• Credit: a digital replacement for the post-dated cheque, such as buy-now-pay-later or instalment products, would answer a real need left by the reform;
• Trust and cost: low or zero fees for small payments and simple onboarding for people without a bank account.

Until those pieces fall into place, the BCT's daily figures suggest cash will keep its grip.