TEMPO.CO, Semarang-The amount of counterfeit money circulating in the third quarter of 2015 in Central Java has increased by 36.28 percent when compared to the second quarter, officials said Wednesday, November 18.
“Our data shows that the number of counterfeit bills in the second quarter stood at 4,688 and 6,389 in the third quarter,” Iskandar Simorangkir, head of Central Java-Yogyakarta branch of Bank Indonesia said in Semarang.
About 54.5 percent of the total counterfeit money were in Rp 100,000 bills, 42.3 percent were in Rp 50,000 bills, and the rest were in smaller bills. Iskandar said that he could not confirm yet about the cause of the increasing number of counterfeit bills.
“There was an indication that the increasing number of counterfeit bills was linked with regional head elections,” he said.
However, Iskandar said that BI could not yet confirm the assumption. Iskandar revealed that the amount of counterfeit money was tiny compared to the amount of money in circulation.
ANTARA
