Franc zone economies have stagnated since independence, with most growing under 1 percent yearly

Evidence

From this point of view, the performance of the countries of the franc zone since their independence, or, depending on the case, since their entry into the franc zone, is very disappointing. When a country registers an average annual growth of 1 per cent of its real GDP per capita, it means that the latter doubles every 70 years. However, over the 1960–2016 period, the major economies of the zone – the Ivory Coast (0.45 per cent), Cameroon (0.8 per cent) and Senegal (0.02 per cent) – did even worse. Only five of the 15 African countries of the zone achieved a growth rate of over 1 per cent: Mali (2 per cent between 1984 and 2016), Burkina Faso (1.84 per cent) and three oil-exporting countries, Equatorial Guinea (10.3 per cent between 1985 and 2016), Gabon (1.41 per cent) and Congo (1.21 per cent). — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 281

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the earlier chapter’s framing of CFA as a development tool; this data directly refutes the Bank of France’s claimed development benefits. — connects to: Franc zone growth is uneven and often strongly negative; Franc zone growth falls below the sub-Saharan average.; Recent franc zone growth only recovers past peaks, not net progress — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 282 (+3 more)

Related

• Franc zone growth is uneven and often strongly negative (similarity 0.93)
• Franc zone growth falls below the sub-Saharan average. (similarity 0.90)
• Recent franc zone growth only recovers past peaks, not net progress (similarity 0.90)
• Franc zone growth mostly reflects multinational activity, not local productive capacity (similarity 0.87)
• The CFA system only works while franc-zone economies stay small (similarity 0.87)
• Four structural handicaps explain the franc zone’s poor socioeconomic performance (similarity 0.83)
• Seventy years in, franc zone states still export unprocessed raw materials to Europe (similarity 0.81)
• No franc zone state beyond Mauritania and Madagascar sought monetary independence. (similarity 0.79)
• Even French official bodies openly acknowledge the franc zone serves French influence. (similarity 0.79)
• Post-colonial monetary unions survived only in the franc zone and small dependencies (similarity 0.79)
• Eurozone membership merged CFA extraction with neoliberal austerity, worsening African prospects. (similarity 0.79)
• The CFA system gives France instruments to steer franc-zone politics (similarity 0.79)
• Demographic reversal will erode France’s capacity to underwrite franc zone currencies (similarity 0.78)
• CFA francs are non-convertible among the three African franc-zone sub-units (similarity 0.78)
• CFA macroeconomic stability does not attract foreign direct investment (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Recent franc zone growth only recovers past peaks, not net progress #corroborates (0.85) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 282
• Four structural handicaps explain the franc zone’s poor socioeconomic performance #expands (0.65) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 293
• Franc zone growth mostly reflects multinational activity, not local productive capacity #expands (0.60) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 315
• The CFA system only works while franc-zone economies stay small #expands (0.50)