The Monetary Geography of Africa by Paul Masson and Catherine Pattillo
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The Monetary Geography of Africa By Paul Masson and Catherine Pattillo Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations and Acronyms I. Introduction II. African Currency Regimes Since World War II III. Economic and Political Criteria for Currency Unions or the Adoption of Another Currency IV. Lessons from Two African Monetary Unions: the CFA Franc Zone and the South African CMA V. Experiences of Countries in Managing Independent Currencies VI. Proposed Single Currency for West Africa VII. Regional Integration in the Southern Africa Development Community VIII. East African Community and COMESA in East and Southern Africa IX. A Single Currency for Africa? X. Conclusions : the Likely Evolution of Africa’s Monetary Geography in Coming Decades References 9/23/03 The Monetary Geography of Africa Preface This book describes the use of moneys in Africa, currently and in the recent past, and attempts to draw conclusions concerning the evolution of exchange rate regimes in the future. Before getting into the substance, two questions need to be answered: what is the meaning of “monetary geography,” and why is it an interesting topic for Africa? We have adapted the term “monetary geography” from the title of a book by Benjamin Cohen, The Geography of Money1. In that book, Cohen argues forcefully that money has become “deterritorialized,” that is, the circulation of a particular money is no longer coterminous with the country of issue. A prime case in point is the creation of the euro, which is not associated with a single country but rather with a supranational central bank. In addition, foreign currencies circulate widely in many developing countries, because of uncertainty about the ability of the domestic currency to maintain its value. Thus, in this book, we are concerned with the use of money, whether within the issuing country’s borders or outside of them. We are especially interested in the potential spread of regional currency areas. In keeping with the geographical notion, we will rely on maps to convey some of the key data not only on the use of moneys but also on the economic variables that influence their use and determine their value. This brings us to the second question: why is that an interesting topic in Africa today? In fact, Africa is arguably a more useful laboratory than is Europe for studying the use of money. It contains two monetary unions characterized by joint decision-making among sovereign states that have existed for some 40 years, the two CFA franc zones, and a monetary area between South Africa and smaller neighboring countries, in which South Africa sets monetary policy, that dates back to the early years of the 20th century. This justifies a more thorough look at the African experience than has been attempted thus far, in notable contrast to the European case, which has received enormous attention. Moreover, the African continent has several projects for further monetary unions that are intended to culminate in a single African currency. So there is a great need for analysis of the advisability of the monetary union projects and for research into how best to proceed. We hope that this book goes some way towards meeting those needs. 1 Cohen (1998). 10/14/03 Acknowledgements We would like to thank a great number of our colleagues at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the West African Monetary Institute, other official institutions, and in academe. Our collaboration began when Christian François, then in the African Department of the IMF, suggested that we analyze the proposed monetary union for ECOWAS. Each of us had earlier worked on currency issues for Africa, and we are grateful for the encouragement of Paul Collier, Ernesto Hernández-Catá, and Charles Humphreys in that regard. Our work on ECOWAS was greatly assisted by the hospitality and information provided by the West African Monetary Institute in Accra, and especially by Ernest Addison, Rebiliy Asante, Siradiou Bah, and Michael Ojo. This book grew out of our earlier collaboration and also involvement with the CFA franc zone by one of us (Masson), who would like to thank his collaborators in that work at the IMF, especially Ousmane Doré, Christian Durand, Papa Ousmane Sakho, Pierre van den Boogaerde, and Johannes Wiegand; the BCEAO and the BEAC for hospitality provided in Dakar and Yaoundé, respectively; and Philippe Bonzom, Christian DeBoissieu, Patrick Guillaumont and Sylviane Guillaumont-Jeanneney, Célestin Monga, and Marc-Olivier Strauss-Kahn, for interesting discussions on the topics of this book. The book itself has benefited from comments from some of the above as well as: Christopher Adam, Luis de Azcarate, Pierre Ewenczyk, A. Laure Gnassou, John Green, Charles Harvey, Jacqueline Irving, Christiane Kraus, Luca Ricci, Klaus-Walter Riechel, Jon Shields, Meshack Tjirongo, and Romain Veyrune. Benjamin Cohen encouraged us to undertake the project, which is inspired by his own work, and gave us detailed comments on the outline. The building blocks for our book were presented at various conferences, including the American Economic Association annual meeting (New Orleans, January, 2000), CDC/CEPII conference on monetary unions (Santiago, March, 2002), regional currency areas conference sponsored by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (Accra, October, 2002), and seminars at the Bank of Canada and the University of Aix-Marseille. We would like to thank Frank Bohn, Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Patrick Osakwe, Malcolm Knight, and Gilles Nancy for offering us the opportunity to do so. A conference at the BIS on regional currency areas (September 2002) provided insights and useful contacts, for which we are grateful to Philip Turner and John Hawkins. Indispensable inputs to our analysis of Southern Africa, Botswana, and SADC were obtained thanks to visits to Pretoria and Gaborone by Masson which were arranged with the kind assistance of Lambertus van Zyl and Don Stephenson. He would especially like to thank, among the many whom he met there, Werner Brümmerhoff, Derek Hudson, Keith Jefferis, Brian Kahn, Christopher Loewald, Elias Masilela, Oduetse Motshidisi, Andrew Motsomi, Jay Salkin, and Moeketsi Senaoana. We would especially like to acknowledge our debt to our close collaborators. Xavier Debrun has coauthored with us several papers on monetary unions in Africa, and our book builds on that work. Heather Milkiewicz put together much of the data used in this book, has mastered the technology of creating maps, and has done much of the statistical analysis. Finally, Masson would like to thank the Brookings Institution, and in particular Carol Graham and Robert Litan, for providing excellent facilities and financial support without which the book would not have been possible. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors and do not represent those of the Brookings Institution, the International Monetary Fund, or other institutions. 9/23/03 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms AEC- African Economic Community, created by the 1991 Abuja Treaty AMU- Arab Maghreb Union, a regional group that includes Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. APRM- African Peer Review Mechanism: an instrument of the NEPAD that will review countries’ performance in the area of governance and exert peer pressure to improve it. AU- African Union, a pan-African organization whose Constitutive Act entered into force in 2001; it aims to bring about economic and political integration. BCEAO- Banque Centrale des états de l’Afrique de l’ouest: the central bank of WAEMU BEAC- Banque des états de l’Afrique Centrale: the central bank of CAEMC CFA franc zone - a common currency area that uses the CFA franc which is pegged to the euro with the assistance of the French Treasury. Its African members are comprised of two groups of countries (plus the Comoros), WAEMU and CAEMC, each with its own central bank and its own currency. In French, franc CFA stands for franc de la Communauté Financière d'Afrique for WAEMU and franc de la Coopération Financière en Afrique Centrale for CAEMC. CMA- Common Monetary Area, is comprised of South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland. CAEMC- (CEMAC in Frenc) Central African Economic and Monetary Community, comprised of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon. They use the CFA franc issued by the region’s central bank, the BEAC. COMESA- Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, extending from Egypt in the north to Namibia in the south. EMS- European Monetary System, a transitional regime leading to EMU. EMU- European Economic and Monetary Union, the common currency area based on the euro. EU- European Union, a grouping of at present 15 countries, 12 of which belong to EMU. ECCAS- Economic Community of Central African States, an embryonic grouping of CAEMC countries and their neighbors in central Africa. ECOWAS- Economic Community of West African States, founded in 1975, and which is comprised of WAEMU and WAMZ countries. IMF- International Monetary Fund MMA- Multilateral Monetary Agreement: the 1992 agreement that governs the CMA. NEPAD- New Partnership for African Development; a 1999 initiative of Presidents Mbeki, Wade, Bouteflika, and Obasanjo to encourage African countries to work together in order to improve governance and further development. NOFP- Net Open Forward Position OAU- Organization of African Unity, the predecessor (with the AEC) to the AU. OECD- Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development,