The minimum rate of 0.75% was set in 2012. And interest rates have been below 1 and close to 0 for the better part of the last decade. Either way I have no horse in this debate. CFA monetary policy is a very complex issue, and France is cooperating in trying to reform it. France has offered to hand over the reserves to the member countries, but the members were not able to agree. Fact is many of the African elites profit from the CFA system and they're not keen on letting go of it. It's a fascinating subject worth of PHd like research with a wide range of variables. Sadly to get back to what I was originally lamenting, Shirvan from the Caspian Report failed to research/mention. Instead painting his video using very black and white brushes.

This is actually what part of this trip is about. Restitutions of African cultural artifacts. Last paragraphs >> https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2023/02/27/macron-plans-noticeable-reduction-of-french-troops-in-africa_6017548_5.html

Not to mention all the cherry picking he does in this video, like when talking about GDP figures and comparing for example Ivory Coast which was a commodity based economy (cocoa, whose prices crashed in the 1980s) and also in the midst of a brutal years-long civil war while neighboring Ghana experienced relative peace and stability. These types of facts matter when covering geo-political subjects. Or the fancy graphics showing the flow of money going from the CFA countries to France and completely lacking any kind of source info. Maybe he should have included actual import/export statistics and realize that the big majority of CFA nations commerce is with the US/Canada/China. Or which mining companies actually most benefit from the natural resources there (hint, they're not French). Anyhow.. this video reeked of clickbait and anti-French propaganda. I'll keep watching his videos for entertainment purposes but a good reminder to be keenly aware of his bias.

Do any of you here actually read the article? "Peace was only possible if “Russian aggression was halted, troops withdrawn, and the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine and its people was respected”, he added."

If you watch the video. This youtube commenter (Albe Van Hanoy) has made a good debunk that can be verified with some extra research. Sorry long message:

"Firstly it's important to note that every member country can leave the agreements at any time. France is forcing noone.

4:50 The operation in Guinea (Known as Operation Persil) happened in 1959. Back then France still had colonies, and was by no means the same country it is today. Caspian Report conveniently ignores this date to make it feel more recent, but it was 64 years ago. The current president of France wasn't even born.

6:11 False. France has no Veto power. In fact France has only one representative in the Central Bank of Central African States (With no veto) , and doesn't even have a representative at all in the Central Bank of Western African States.

6:50 This entire section makes no sense and completely ignores what "money" is. Money is only the means to an exchange, and can only be so if both parties agree on the value of said currency. On its own, money does nothing. The CFA Francs are the sovereign currencies of these African States, and as such, if France does a commercial operation using CFA France, it can only be with a partner from one of these 14 countries. So the accusation of France somehow "using the foreign exchange reserves to prop up its own economy" is nothing but an accusation thrown into the air with no source or facts to back it up.

What France does actually do with this money then you ask? It only prints it, and keeps it safe from political instability, rather than having the reserves be held in a country where Al Qaeda terrorist groups operate and could stage an attack on the currency reserve.

Additionally (And importantly), France pays interest on deposits by member countries, and at a fixed 0.7% rate, even when actual interest rates on the market were negative. This is a net loss of money for France.

There is nothing out of the ordinary with printing the money of a foreign state, several other countries relinquish printing to foreign nations: The Guinean franc, Ethiopian birr, Ugandan shilling and Botswana pula are produced in the United Kingdom, The Mauritanian ouguiya, Eritrean nakfa, Tanzanian shilling and Zambian kwacha are produced in Germany, and The Liberian dollar is printed in the United States. But strangely, only France is ever brought up.

7:46 If any country's company does it, it's called foreign investment. When French companies do this, it's called exploitation and colonization. This double standard must stop.

9:05 These figures are simply nonexistent and unsourced.

9:55 This is very misleading. These countries typically outperform neighbouring countries in GDP Growth, and the stagnation reported on the video is not exclusive to the Franc Zone. In fact it is somewhat the opposite: The stability of the CFA Franc made these countries a lot more resilient to economic instability. The COVID crisis resulted in a 1.7% recession in sub-saharan African outside of the Franc Zone. Within the Franc Zone, it was a 0.3% growth.

11:25 This segment completely misrepresents what the Eco is. It is an African initiative, that is encouraged and supported by France. Western African States plan to switch to a new currency, and France won't hold any form of control over it. The centralization of exchange reserves in a French Treasury account will be abolished, among other reforms that will significantly lessen the influence of France. The only thing that will remain will be the fixed exchange rate with the Euro, something African States are all too happy to keep. Presenting this as "nothing but a ruse" is extremely disingenuous and goes contrary to the notion of neutral reporting.

12:20 This is literally false. Mauritania left. Madagascar left. France did not intervene in either case to prevent them from doing so. And Guinea-Bissau literally joined on their own volition in 1997, even though they are not even a former French colony, and not a French speaking country. Why? Simply because they realized it was advantageous. If the situation was as terrible as this video describes, this would be unjustifiable.

I am sure there is a lot more to say, but this comment is already long. Moral of the story: Don't blindly trust a YouTube video just because it has pretty graphics."

Big fan of Caspian report.. but that video is full of omissions and is disingenuous at best.