World sticks to cash as Sweden heads alone into cashless future

A customer has a QR code scanned from a smart phone at a grocery store in Bangkok, Thailand, on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. Singapore and Thailand are in discussions about connecting their national digital payment systems to forge an unprecedented regional alliance, as officials step up efforts to curb the use of cash. Photographer: Amanda Mustard/Bloomberg

When it comes to abandoning cash, Sweden is going it mostly alone. 

While cash in circulation in the Nordic region’s largest economy has dropped rapidly in recent years, the amount of notes and coins has risen in most of the rest of the developed world since the global financial crisis, according to a report from the Bank for International Settlements.