What is a regional complementary currency?
A local or regional complementary currency is a currency that can only be spent in a specific region. It is complementary to the euro. You can buy bread with a euro and with a regional currency. What happens after that makes all the difference! Because the regional currency can only be spent in the region so it will benefit small businesses in the region.
What kind of impact can regional complementary currency have?
Dutch consumers spent €1.9 bn in EU web shops in 2019. Only a fraction of these euros were spent by the web shops regionally. The profit ends up with to investors.
Of each € 100 spent in a supermarket or shop of a corporate chain only € 15 is spent by that shop in the region or locally.
If you buy for a € 100 in a local shop € 45 is spent by that local shop owner in the region or locally.
If you buy € 100 worth of regional complementary currency on average it is spent in the region 11,16 times before it is changed back to euros. So € 100 of local and regional currency is worth € 1.116 for the regional economy. These figures are based on a research done in the Spanish city … after having a local currency for only five years. What was also a huge benefit was that a lot more shops opened after introducing the local currency.
When is a regional complementary currency used?
As of 1931 the Austrian city Wörgl has a local currency that got the city through the Great Depression. From their experience we found out that regional currencies thrive most during financial turmoil. Regional economy was kept afloat by doing a lot more regional transactions. After everything turned to normal, the euro (or national coin before 2001) was used more again.
