Monetary Transitions in Cabo Verde: from the Escudo Zone to the Exchange Agreement
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Working Paper CEsA CSG 179/2020 MONETARY TRANSITIONS IN CABO VERDE: FROM THE ESCUDO ZONE TO THE EXCHANGE AGREEMENT WITH PORTUGAL1 João ESTÊVÃO Abstract During the colonial period and within the framework of the monetary system of the Portuguese colonies, Cabo Verde lived in a situation of relative monetary and exchange stability. After independence, in 1975, the country underwent two monetary transitions: the first, immediately after independence and with the abandonment of the exchange rate parity with the Portuguese escudo; and the second, from 1998 onwards, following an exchange cooperation agreement with Portugal. During both transitions, the country could rebuild monetary and exchange stability, as a result of the way in which institutional and external factors of stability were used in each of them. However, the second transition significantly affected the evolution of trade and international investments in Cabo Verde, whose expansion resulted in a strong growth of the economy and exports. This paper analyses not only the conditions of monetary and exchange stability in the two transitions, but also the nature of the changes that took place with the second transition. Those changes were reflected in a trend of structural transformation and consolidation of the market economy in Cabo Verde, paving the way to the good economic performance of the last few decades. Keywords Cabo Verde; monetary transition; exchange stability factors; exchange cooperation agreement. 1 This paper benefited from the research developed for the book História da Moeda em Cabo Verde (History of Money in Cabo Verde), commissioned and published by the Banco de Cabo Verde in 2015. Additional research was carried out at the Banco de Portugal, both in the Department of International Relations and in the Historical Archive. Special credits to Maria João Estêvão for the translation. support WP 179/2020 WORKING PAPER CEsA neither confirms nor informs any opinions expressed by the authors in this document. CEsA is a research Centre that belongs to CSG/Research in Social Sciences and Management that is hosted by the Lisbon School of Economics and Management of the University of Lisbon an institution dedicated to teaching and research founded in 1911. In 2015, CSG was object of the international evaluation process of R&D units carried out by the Portuguese national funding agency for science, research and technology (FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology) having been ranked as “Excellent”. Founded in 1983, it is a private institution without lucrative purposes, whose research team is composed of ISEG faculty, full time research fellows and faculty from other higher education institutions. It is dedicated to the study of economic, social and cultural development in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, although it places particular emphasis on the study of African Portuguese-speaking countries, China and Pacific Asia, as well as Brazil and other Mercosur countries. Additionally, CEsA also promotes research on any other theoretical or applied topic in development studies, including globalization and economic integration, in other regions generally or across several regions. From a methodological point of view, CEsA has always sought to foster a multidisciplinary approach to the phenomenon of development, and a permanent interconnection between the theoretical and applied aspects of research. Besides, the centre pays particular attention to the organization and expansion of research supporting bibliographic resources, the acquisition of databases and publication exchange with other research centres. AUTHOR João ESTÊVÃO Researcher at Centre for African and Development Studies (CEsA), Professor of Development Economics and Policy at Lisbon School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal. Email: [email protected] URL: https://cesa.rc.iseg.ulisboa.pt/index.php/pt/menucesa/membrosinvestigadores/241 More Working Papers CEsA / CSG available at https://cesa.rc.iseg.ulisboa.pt/index.php/pt/publicacoes/working-papers-cesacsg 1 WP 179/2020 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................... 3 1. THE MONETARY AND EXCHANGE STABILITY IN CABO VERDE DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4 2. THE POST-INDEPENDENCE MONETARY TRANSITION IN CABO VERDE .............................. 10 3. THE SECOND MONETARY TRANSITION AND THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE COOPERATION AGREEMENT WITH PORTUGAL ................................................................................................................... 17 FINAL REMARKS ................................................................................................................................................. 26 SOURCES ................................................................................................................................................................. 28 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................................ 29 More Working Papers CEsA / CSG available at https://cesa.rc.iseg.ulisboa.pt/index.php/pt/publicacoes/working-papers-cesacsg 2 WP 179/2020 INTRODUCTION In the second colonial system, since the nineteenth century, the European powers promoted the commercial integration of the colonised areas using monetary and banking integration as an instrument. Colonial banks were established, often with a monopoly of action, as well as colonial monetary systems based on currencies with a local circulation but pegged to metropolitan currencies, of which they were essentially a local representation. The monetary integration models ensured monetary and exchange stability in the colonies and, indirectly, the convertibility of their currencies (Schuler 2003; Estêvão 1991b). After the post-World War II political independences, most new countries eventually abandoned the colonial monetary systems in which they were integrated, opting for the creation of central banks and the issue of their own currencies. Some countries created currency boards while others, which had belonged to colonial monetary zones, replicated them through new agreements with the former colonial powers. Contexts of rupture led to processes of monetary disintegration, which had repercussions like situations of instability and the weak development of banking and financial structures. In the cases of post-colonial continuity of the monetary pegging, the evolution was much more stable (Schuler 2003; Honohan and O’Connel 1997). Cabo Verde had belonged, since 1901, to the monetary system of the Portuguese colonies, a system that was later integrated in the Escudo zone, thus operating between 1963 and 1974. After independence, the country went through two monetary transitions: (i) first, in a context of rupture and monetary autonomy (1976-1998), with the creation of a central bank and the issue of its own currency; (ii) afterwards, with the establishment of an exchange agreement with Portugal, in 1998, Cabo Verde once again pegged its currency to the Portuguese escudo (later the euro) in a fixed parity relation. Monetary and exchange stability had been the norm during the colonial period and became so again recently, with the exchange agreement. However, even though the first post-colonial transition was a monetary rupture, the country eventually reached a relative stability, based on the application of instruments of policy and foreign exchange management. More Working Papers CEsA / CSG available at https://cesa.rc.iseg.ulisboa.pt/index.php/pt/publicacoes/working-papers-cesacsg 3 WP 179/2020 The main objective of this paper is to analyse how, in each one of those two monetary transitions, the conditions of monetary and exchange stability that came from the colonial period were reconstructed. On the other hand, considering the second monetary transition and the exchange agreement with Portugal, this paper also intends to show the effects that the new stability had on the recent economic performance of Cabo Verde and on the changes in its economic model. Section II of the paper examines the factors of monetary and foreign exchange stability in Cabo Verde during the colonial period, section III explores the first monetary transition post-independence and section IV analyses the second monetary transition and the exchange agreement with Portugal, besides highlighting its effects on the Cape-Verdean economy and the sense of change that it has stimulated. 1. THE MONETARY AND EXCHANGE STABILITY IN CABO VERDE DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD2 The monetary and exchange stability in Cabo Verde began to be constructed in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the combination of two fundamental pillars (Estêvão 2015): (i) the ability to raise foreign exchange developed in the last few decades of the century (external factor); and (ii) the creation of the colonial monetary system (institutional factor) with the institution of the Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU)3 in 1864 and, later, the contract between the State and the BNU on 27 April 1901 which instituted de facto the colonial monetary system. At the turn of the twentieth century, the main external resources that would shape the dynamics of the economy throughout most