Thread by @nssylla

The #BBC published a piece to “fact check” some claims made on the #CFA franc. Ironically, this piece is full of “fake news”, biased and sloppy statements.
bbc.com/news/63708313

The topic of this piece is a currency supposed to be “African”. It’s “surprising” that the #BBC interviewed or quoted no African, especially those who critically work on it.

The intent behind such kind of exercise is to try indirectly to discredit and delegitimize valid criticisms against the #CFA franc as a colonial currency (same organizing rules since colonial times).

Instead of engaging with the work of African intellectuals and with the fake news propagated by the French government and officials, it has always been easier to “fact check” claims no expert made.

Such kind of exercise could be worthwhile given the extent of “fake news” circulating on social media. But how can we trust those who try to police “fake news” when they themselves produce their own brand of “fake news” in an ideologically-driven way?

“Voluntary” is not the appropriate adjective. Most African leaders who opposed this “currency arrangement” were killed, removed from power or imposed financial sanctions with the complicity of the French government. See our book.

Sloppy: the currency was officially created on December 1945.

False: it’s not individual “African countries” but each of the two central bank issuing the CFA franc – the BCEAO and the BEAC. There is a principle of solidarity/common pooling between Afr. countries in each monetary union (at least for the BCEAO).

BBC does omit that this figure is a nominal interest rate. Real rates have often been negative, i.e, actually “African” central banks have been paying the French Treasury to hold their forex.

This pattern of negative returns in real terms was already observed by the Cameroonian economist Joseph Tchundjang Pouemi in 1980:

Jérôme Bascher, member of the Fr. Senate Finance Committee, on January 28 2021, declared:
"On the [Afr.] foreign exchange reserves placed in the French Treasury, for a long time, the Treasury, and therefore the French Republic, earned a little money on the return on deposits."

This has always been considered “fake news”…when enunciated by African activists and experts. For people like myself, this is a very "minor" aspect our criticism of this colonial currency.

False. The reform only concerned the West African CFA franc, not the “CFA zone”. Still, part of the BCEAO forex that were held at the French Treasury… is now used to buy essentially euro-denominated sovereign debt at real negative interest rates.

Sloppy. Who are the “other economists”?

Anyway: the evolution of real gdp per capita in CFA franc countries has been lower compared to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. This graph comes from @platanomics

These very poor journalistic standards are often the “norm” when it comes to cover “sensitive” aspects of African relationships with the rest of the world.

Fortunately, there exist few good reporting by independent Western journalists that do not repeat the “fake news” propagated by French officials and their experts.
nybooks.com/articles/2022/…