Thus, a monetary system that represses internal credit, such as the CFA system, reflects a lack of confidence in the ability of economic agents to make productive use of bank loans: etymologically, the word 'credit' comes from the Latin 'credere', which means 'to trust' or 'to believe'. In this context, the paucity of bank loans is not the result of a lack of national savings. Quite the opposite: since loans create deposits, it is the paucity of loans that causes the scarcity of savings!

Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa's Last Colonial Curr…, loc. 140