Западноафриканский франк КФА: история и перспективы эко

Currency of several West African countries

The West African CFA franc ( or simply franc, ISO 4217 code: XOF; abbreviation: F. CFA) is the currency used by eight independent states in West Africa which make up the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA; Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine): Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. These eight countries had a combined population of 105.7 million people in 2014, and a combined GDP of US$128.6 billion as of 2018. The initialism CFA stands for Communauté Financière Africaine ('African Financial Community'). The currency is issued by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO; Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest), located in Dakar, Senegal, for the members of the UEMOA. The franc is nominally subdivided into 100 centimes but no coins or banknotes denominated in centimes have ever been issued. The production of CFA franc notes has been carried out at Chamalières by the Bank of France since its creation in 1945. The Central African CFA franc is of equal value to the West African CFA franc, and is in circulation in several central African states. They are both commonly referred to as the CFA franc. In December 2019 it was announced that the West African CFA franc would be reformed, which will include renaming it the eco and reducing France's role in the currency. The broader Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which the members of UEMOA are also members, plans to introduce its own common currency for its member states by 2027, for which the name eco has also been formally adopted.

The CFA franc was introduced to the French colonies in West Africa in 1945, replacing the French West African franc. The West African colonies and territories using the CFA franc were Ivory Coast, Dahomey, French Sudan, Mauritania, Niger, Sénégal, Togo and Upper Volta. The currency continued in use when these colonies gained their independence, except in Mali (formerly French Sudan), which replaced at par the CFA franc with its own franc in 1961. In 1973, Mauritania replaced the CFA franc with the ouguiya at a rate of 1 ouguiya = 5 francs. Mali readopted the CFA franc in 1984, at a rate of 1 CFA franc = 2 Malian francs. The former Portuguese colony of Guinea Bissau adopted the CFA franc in 1997, replacing the Guinea Bissau peso at a rate of 1 CFA franc = 65 pesos. The currency was pegged to the French franc at F. CFA 1 = F 2, from 1948, becoming 1 F. CFA = NF 0.02 after introduction of the new franc at 1 new franc = 100 old francs. In 1994 the currency was devalued by half to F. CFA 1 = F 0.01. From 1999 it has since been pegged to the euro at €1 = F 6.55957 = F. CFA 655.957

There has been some debate over whether the West African CFA franc serves as a way for France to keep influence in the region, often to the detriment to these nations. For example, one of the "rules" of the currency is that the central banks of all of the nations involved have to keep at least 50% of their foreign assets in the French Treasury. Some see this as a way to keep the currency stable while other see it as limiting the economic independence of the West African nations that are involved. Even though during the early 1950s to the mid 1980s, CFA countries experienced higher real GDP growth and lower inflation rates than other non CFA Sub Saharan countries, the economic shocks of the 1986 and 1993 caused the CFA franc to become increasingly overvalued and run increased deficits in the French Treasury. Some policymakers have argued that the CFA franc be tied to a basket of currencies rather than one currency as it currently is. Also, they state that the reserve requirement should be restructured in order to give CFA countries more economic freedom.