Ninety-four percent of surveyed central banks are exploring a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The survey suggests that central banks are proceeding at their own speed, taking diverse approaches and considering different design features. Over the course of 2023, there has been a sharp uptick in experiments and pilots with wholesale CBDCs – mainly in advanced economies (AEs), but various emerging market and developing economies (EMDE) also stepped up their wholesale CBDC work. Overall, the likelihood that central banks will issue a wholesale CBDC within the next six years now exceeds the likelihood that they will ... (full story)