France blocks AfDB support to pressure African states toward IMF programs

Evidence

Meanwhile, rumours began to spread in the region that a devaluation of the CEMAC CFA franc was inevitable and imminent. Under pressure, the CEMAC’s heads of state finally surrendered on 23 December 2016 during a summit held in Yaoundé on the initiative of Paris and the IMF. Michel Sapin, France’s finance minister, and his compatriot Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, were there. The meeting was very tense. The president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, posed several embarrassing questions to the French representatives. ‘Why does the French Treasury guarantee no longer apply whenever we have a problem?’, he asked in essence. He didn’t get an answer. At the end of the summit, the heads of state declared, in a statement prepared by Paris, that they had come to the conclusion that a ‘readjustment of the current monetary parity’ with the euro was not necessary. Thus they implied that the risk of a devaluation had effectively existed, although this was not the case. The idea of a monetary adjustment had actually been spread by Paris only to make the ‘IMF pill’ more digestible for the African heads of state and public opinion. In their final statement, the leaders stated that they had decided ‘to start and conclude bilateral negotiations with the IMF in the near future’. The photo taken at the end of the summit is worth a thousand words: in it, you can clearly see the six heads of state physically placed between Michel Sapin and Christine Lagarde. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 238 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The 1994 devaluation tripled French financial advantages while shifting blame to the IMF.; Paris fabricated devaluation rumors to force African states into accepting IMF programmes. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 238; France had already decided to devalue while reassuring African leaders it would not — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 209 (+5 more)

Related

• Paris fabricated devaluation rumors to force African states into accepting IMF programmes. (similarity 0.96)
• Paris fabricated a devaluation scare to force IMF involvement on CEMAC (similarity 0.94)
• The 1994 devaluation was decided under French and IMF supervision in Dakar (similarity 0.90)
• Mitterrand privately reassured African leaders against a devaluation already decided. (similarity 0.90)
• The 1980s debt crisis triggered IMF demands for CFA devaluation (similarity 0.88)
• The 1994 devaluation tripled French financial advantages while shifting blame to the IMF. (similarity 0.87)
• The 1994 devaluation was imposed under covert intimidation of African leaders. (similarity 0.86)
• France takes unilateral devaluation decisions affecting the CFA without informing African states in advance. (similarity 0.86)
• African states bore French franc devaluations without being consulted, violating the monetary agreements. (similarity 0.85)
• France had already decided to devalue while reassuring African leaders it would not (similarity 0.84)
• Paris devalued the French franc unilaterally without consulting African states (similarity 0.84)
• African leaders and researchers were sidelined while France and allied presidents dictated policy (similarity 0.84)
• France’s guarantee is backed by pooled African reserves and French central bank seats (similarity 0.83)
• France granted African states nominal monetary rights while denying them in practice (similarity 0.82)
• The 1994 devaluation capped decades of Paris refusing to adjust the overvalued CFA franc (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Paris fabricated devaluation rumors to force African states into accepting IMF programmes. #corroborates (0.85) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 238
• Paris fabricated a devaluation scare to force IMF involvement on CEMAC #corroborates (0.80)
• The CFA franc functions as a political instrument of pressure over 15 African states. #corroborates (0.70)
• The 1994 devaluation was decided under French and IMF supervision in Dakar #corroborates (0.70)
• France had already decided to devalue while reassuring African leaders it would not #corroborates (0.60) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 209
• The 1980s debt crisis triggered IMF demands for CFA devaluation #qualifies (0.50) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 205