Five hundred euro notes make up the value of 62.65% of currency value available in Spain. For the first time the number of notes rose above one hundred thousand putting the value in circulation at 50,000,000 at any one time. The report by the bank of Spain comes after previous revelations earlier in the year that Spain had the highest amount of five hundred euro notes in circulation.

The value of these bills reached a new high of 50.658 millions of euros in April rising 32% from the same period last year. Last year there were 76 million notes.

The minister for finance has already analysed the zones of Spain which have the greatest abundance of these notes to examine whether the rise in circulation is a symptom of the rising markets or wider use of the five hundred euro bills on the black market.

The largest black market use is in passing high denomination notes for easy payment for property. In a resale property it is possible for the seller to avoid paying capital gains tax by taking some of the money for the property in cash and then declaring the price was of lower worth. However most items can be bought in Spain for a discount by offering to pay cash for example  boats and cars. The seller then has an automatic reduction in the VAT and other taxes.