Italy is to use more cash and fewer credit cards, bucking a global trend towards electronic currency, after Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, dismissed card payments as “private money”.

Meloni, who was elected in September, is finalising her first budget, which is due to include a rule allowing shopkeepers and businesses to refuse cards and demand cash for payments up to €60. The rule would raise the current limit of €30 and includes permission to sell and buy goods worth up to €5,000 in cash, up from €1,000.