Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 August 9

= August 9 =

Economic effects of CFA franc on former French colonies in sub-saharan Africa?
Whenever discussions on Françafrique come up, the currency CFA franc always get mentioned especially 20 years after the original franc got replaced by the euro. I have seen quite a significant amount of people asserting that CFA franc has caused former French colonies in Sub-Saharan Africa to continue be economically reliant/dependent on France ever since they achieved independence. Is this true? If it is true, then how does it work exactly? StellarHalo (talk) 03:09, 9 August 2020 (UTC)
 * A lot has been written about this, although mostly in French. There is no consensus among economists. The main problem is that level of trade between African countries is abnormally low, but that's not just a question of currency as it also plagues countries that do not use the CFA Franc. Another issue is that having an artificially strong currency has advantages, but it also encourages all imports and discourages local production. Here are a few recent articles in English:, , . Xuxl (talk) 13:09, 9 August 2020 (UTC)
 * One of the central objections is the colonial nature of the two currencies. They are managed by France, which means that neither allows the regions on question to manage their own monetary policy.  There are social and political implications beyond the economic ones for living in a place where another country's government has complete control over your monetary policy and currency.  Any argument in favor of the arrangement carries quite a bit of paternalism which feels out of time going into the third decade of the twenty-first century.-- Jayron 32 16:02, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

There is almost certainly no single answer to why CFA economies have not done well. And, within each of the CFA groups (West African CFA and Central African CFA) there are decidedly mixed results. To avoid exchange rate issues, I looked at caloric intake, and in the first group, Mali, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, and Niger did far, far better than Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, and Togo. In the Central African group, Gabon is the standout winner, CAR and Chad big losers, Congo poor and Cameroon little changed over the period 1961-latest data. A badly corrupt long-term leader or a civil war can ruin the results much, much more thoroughly than a mismanaged exchange rate. DOR (HK) (talk) 18:05, 9 August 2020 (UTC)


 * How likely is future Euro use? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 17:14, 11 August 2020 (UTC)

In Africa ? ? That’s not likely as weaker European economies struggle to remain in the Euro Zone. DOR (HK) (talk) 00:56, 12 August 2020 (UTC)