An economist has calculated that the theoretical cost of the convertibility guarantee (that is, the sum that the French Treasury would have to pay if the foreign exchange reserves of the franc zone were to run out and France had to activate its famous guarantee) has steadily decreased over the years, to the point of becoming trivial. We are talking of a sum that, over the 1962– 2005 period, oscillated between a minimum of 0.8 per cent and a maximum of 1.3 per cent of the French GDP. The reason the figure is so small is that the BCEAO and the BEAC, as demanded by France, have always kept their operations accounts well stocked, even overstocked, thus eliminating, de facto, the need for the guarantee. A further reason is the growing development gap between the French economy and the African economies of the franc zone: the poorer and more underfinanced the African countries remain, the lower the theoretical cost of the guarantee of convertibility is.

Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa's Last Colonial Curr…, loc. 263