ALL CHANGE FOR THE CFA FRANC

摘要

Changes to international currency mechanisms tend to be slow, drawn out affairs, dominated by endless deliberations behind closed doors, with any alterations usually flagged up well in advance. While discontent at west Africa's CFA franc - the French-sponsored currency used by the eight states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (Waemu) -had been growing over the past years, significant changes to the regime were not anticipated ahead of French president Emmanuel Macron's visit to Cote d'lvoire in December 2019. "We doubt that the French-backed system will be abandoned anytime soon," one analyst wrote on December 21. "Any change would come after a long period of negotiations." The very next day, however, Mr Macron and his Cote d'Ivoirian counterpart, Alas-sane Ouattara, made the startling announcement that the CFA franc would in effect be replaced in 2020 by a new currency, the eco, with the new name shedding perceived references to the currency's origins as a product of the French colonial era. In keeping with such a move is the dropping of the requirement that the BCEAO, the bloc's central bank, deposit at least 50% of its international reserves in the French treasury. France will no longer have a representative on the BCEAO's board of directors, monetary policy or Waemu's banking commission.