Currency union

      A currency union (also known as monetary union) is where two or more states share the same currency, though without there necessarily having any further integration such as an Economic and Monetary Union, which has, in addition, a customs union and a single market.

      There are three types of currency unions:

      1. Informal - unilateral adoption of foreign currency[citation needed]
      2. Formal - adoption of foreign currency by virtue of bilateral or multilateral agreement with the issuing authority, sometimes supplemented by issue of local currency in currency peg regime
      3. Formal with common policy - establishment by multiple countries of common monetary policy and issuing authority for their common currency

      The theory of the optimal currency area addresses the question of how to determine what geographical regions should share a currency in order to maximize economic efficiency.

      List of currency unions

      Current

      Every Customs and monetary union and Economic and monetary union also has a Currency Union

      Currency Union Users Est. Status Population GDP (nominal $)
      CFA franc Issued by Overseas Issuing Institute (France)  Benin
       Burkina Faso
       Côte d'Ivoire
       Guinea-Bissau
       Mali
       Niger
       Senegal
       Togo
       Cameroon
       Central African Republic
       Chad
       Republic of the Congo
       Equatorial Guinea
       Gabon
      1945 Formal, common policy 700750000000000000050,000,000
      CFP franc Issued by Overseas Issuing Institute (France)  French Polynesia
       New Caledonia
       Wallis and Futuna
      1945 Formal, common policy 7005528000000000000528,000
      East Caribbean dollar Eastern Caribbean Currency Union of the OECS  Anguilla
       Antigua and Barbuda
       Dominica
       Grenada
       Montserrat
       Saint Kitts and Nevis
       Saint Lucia
       Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
      1965 Formal, common policy
      de facto EMU for CSME members[1]
      7005625000000000000625,000
      Euro International status and usage of the euro  Andorra
       Kosovo
       Monaco
       Montenegro
       San Marino
       Vatican City
      1999/2002 Formal, common policy and EMU for EU members
      Formal for Monaco and SBAs (those form a de facto EMU with the Eurozone)
      Informal for Andorra, Kosovo, Montenegro
      Formal for the rest
      7008328655062000000328,655,062
      Singapore dollar
      Brunei dollar
      Managed together by the Monetary Authority of Singapore  Brunei
       Singapore
      1967 Formal; currencies mutually exchangeable[2] 70065137000000000005,137,000 701036438000000000036,438,000,000
      Armenian dram  Armenia
       Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
      1994 Informal 70063368900000000003,368,900 701018715000000000018,715,000,000
      Australian dollar  Australia  Kiribati
       Nauru
       Tuvalu
      1966 Informal 700722557000000000022,557,000
      Pound sterling Sterling area  United Kingdom:
       England
       Northern Ireland
       Scotland
       Wales
      1939 Formal, local variants used. 700762321000000000062,321,000
      Indian rupee  Bhutan
       India[3]
         Nepal[4]
      1974 Informal
      Nepal minor usage
      70091215083000000001,215,083,000
      New Zealand dollar  New Zealand  Cook Islands
       Nauru
       Niue
       Pitcairn Islands
      1967 Informal 70064411000000000004,411,000
      Israeli new sheqel  Israel
       Palestine
      1927/1986 Informal 700711738000000000011,738,000
      Jordanian dinar[citation needed]  Jordan
       Palestine (West Bank only)
      Informal 70068922000000000008,922,000
      Russian ruble  Abkhazia
       Russia
       South Ossetia
      2008 Informal 7008142177000000000142,177,000
      South African rand Multilateral Monetary Area  Lesotho
       Namibia
       South Africa
       Swaziland
      1974 Formal
      de facto customs and monetary union for SACU members
      700752924669000000052,924,669 7011316936000000000316,936,000,000
      Swiss franc  Liechtenstein
       Switzerland
      1920 Informal
      since 1924 creation of a customs union and common market in EFTA in a de facto EMU
      70067774546000000007,774,546 7011497171000000000497,171,000,000
      Turkish lira  Turkey
       Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
      1983 Informal 700775081100000000075,081,100 7005734043000000000734,043
      United States dollar  United States  Ecuador
       El Salvador
       Panama
       Marshall Islands
       Federated States of Micronesia
       Palau
       Timor-Leste
       Turks and Caicos Islands
       British Virgin Islands
      Netherlands BES islands
      1904
      (Panama only)
      Informal 7008339300000000000339,300,000

       Zimbabwe is theoretically in a currency union with four blocs as the South African rand, Botswana pula, British pound and US dollar freely circulate, the US Dollar being official tender. [1].

      Currency unions

      Additionally the autonomous and dependent territories, such as some of the EU member state special territories, are sometimes treated as separate customs territory from their mainland state or have varying arrangements of formal or de facto customs union, common market and currency union (or combinations thereof) with the mainland and in regards to third countries trough the trade pacts signed by the mainland state.[5]

      Proposed

      Community Currency Region Target date Notes
      Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas SUCRE Latin America
      /Caribbean
      2010 It is planned to begin as an electronic currency involving all countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.
      East African Community East African shilling Africa 2015
      West African Monetary Zone Eco Africa 2020 Inside Economic Community of West African States, planned to eventually merge with West African franc
      ASEAN+3 Asian Monetary Unit Asia 2015 a free trade agreements matrix partially established
      Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf Khaleeji Persian Gulf c. 2013-2020[6][7] Oman and the United Arab Emirates do not intend to adopt the currency at first but will do at a later date.

      Previous

      ↑Jump back a section

      References

      1. ^ Anguilla and Montserrat are members of OECS currency union, but not of the CSME.
      2. ^ To all intents and purposes a monetary union. They are the last two nations whose dollars have remained at par and mutually interchangeable since the days when the Spanish Dollar was the united currency of large areas of the New World and South East Asia.
      3. ^ alongside the ngultrum
      4. ^ Not official, but freely used as a tender in Nepal, due to primarily the economic flux with India and also the instability caused by that country's civil war.
      5. ^ EU Overseas countries and some other territories participate partially in the EU single market per part four of the Treaty Establishing the European Community; Some EU Outermost regions and other territories use the Euro of the currency union, others are part of the customs union; some participate in both unions and some in neither.
        Territories of the United States, Australian External Territories and Realm of New Zealand territories share the currency and mostly also the market of their respective mainland state, but are generally not part of its customs territory.
      6. ^ http://www.arabianbusiness.com/575538-kuwait-sees-gcc-currency-union-taking-up-to-10-years
      7. ^ www.dunatv.hu (Hungarian)
      8. ^ a b Bolton, Sally (10 December 2001). "A history of currency unions". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 26 February 2012. "France persuaded Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and Greece" 
      9. ^ Not currently on any political agenda, based mostly off conspiracy theories.
      ↑Jump back a section
      Last modified on 8 June 2013, at 14:00