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The Operations Account System in French-Speaking Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Holger L. Engberg
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Extract

Franco-African relations have come under increasing fire during the past few years. African dissatisfaction with various aspects of the co-operation agreements between France and her former colonies is not new, but has recently been more clearly articulated and specifically focused on the structure and regulations of the franc zone which, it is argued, tend to make African states excessively dependent on France.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , December 1973 , pp. 537 - 545
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

Page 537 note 1 Dahomey, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Upper Volta in West Africa; Cameroun, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, and Gabon in Central Africa.

Page 537 note 2 Nearly identical arrangements exist for Mali and the Malagasy Republic which issue their own national currencies. However, the Mali and Malagasy francs are separate from the C.F.A. currency only in name; they are convertible into the French franc as well as into the C.F.A. franc.

Page 538 note 1 Formerly, La Banque centrale des états de l'Afrique equatoriale et du Cameroun.

Page 538 note 2 In addition, La Banque centrale du Mali and L'Institul d'émission malgache each has an operations account.

Page 540 note 1 Statuts de la banque centrale des états de l'Afrique de l'ouest, Part III, Section 1, Article 44, published in Journal officiel de la République franc aise (Paris), 6 March 1963. The West African central bank has so far been nowhere near these warning signals. The ratio of foreign reserves to the demand liabilities of B.C.E.A.O. has been as low as 33 per cent in February 1965 and as high as 78 per cent in September 1971. It averaged 67 per cent for 1971 and 61 per cent for 1972. Most of the demand liabilities are notes and coins in circulation. See Statistiques ouest-africaine (Paris), 128, April 1966Google Scholar; and Statistiques monétaires (Paris), 193, 03 1972, and 203, 02 1973.Google Scholar

Page 541 note 1 Accord de coopération entre la République française et les républiques membres de l'union monétaire ouest africaine, Article 8, published in Journal officiel de la République française, 6 March 1963.

Page 541 note 2 The foreign exchange reserves of the B.C.E.A.O., as well as of the other central banks in the franc zone, are gross reserves which, in addition to the net credit balance on the operations account, include the combined reserve positions of the member states 'at the International Monetary Fund, their holdings of special drawing rights, and minor transaction balances in convertible currencies other than French francs. Hence the difference between the foreign exchange reserves and the net balance on the operations account.

Page 544 note 1 See, for example, Garrity, Monique P., ‘The 1969 French Devaluation and the Ivory Coast Economy’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), X, 4, 12 1972, pp. 627–33.Google Scholar

Page 545 note 1 For a survey of current exchange restrictions in, for example, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia, see International Monetary Fund, Twenty- Third Annual Report on Exchange Restrictions (Washington, 1972).Google Scholar