Leaders of the six-member states of Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) discussed on Friday the need to make their common currency Franc CFA more stable and stronger during a special summit of the sub-regional bloc.

In the communique from the one-day closed-door summit held in the capital of Cameroon, Yaounde, the leaders stressed the importance for the bloc to have “a stable and strong common currency.” They decided to “undertake an in-depth reflection on the conditions as well as the framework” for upgrading its monetary cooperation with France.

The CEMAC Commission and the Bank of Central African States are going to “propose an appropriate scheme within a reasonable period of time leading to the evolution of the common currency,” said the communique.

The CEMAC countries — Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic (CAR), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo — use the CFA franc as their common currency, which is deeply rooted in the French colonial era.

In his closing remarks at the summit, Cameroonian President Paul Biya said the bloc’s existing monetary policy has so far helped maintain the financial stability in the member states, and stressed that reform proposals should be aimed at “strengthening our action and creating favourable conditions for the effective contribution of the monetary policy to the development of our sub-region.”

According to him, in 2018, the CEMAC growth rate stood at 1.8 percent with an inflation below 3 percent.

Source: Xinhuanet