By Karin Strohecker
LONDON (Reuters) – Lebanon’s currency peg to the dollar has come under scrutiny after two weeks of widespread protests over corruption in the heavily indebted country which has descended into a deep economic crisis.
A number of countries such as Egypt, Angola, Uzbekistan and Venezuela have recently loosened their grip on their currencies, allowing for economic adjustments through their exchange rates and trying to preserve reserves and tackle dollar shortages.
Below is a list of some countries who still control their foreign exchange rates.
NORTH AFRICA & THE MIDDLE EAST
LEBANON: The pound SAUDI ARABIA: The world’s top oil exporter has a fixed exchange rate regime, with the riyal KUWAIT: The dinar QATAR: Since 1980, the riyal UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: The mid-point between the official buying and selling rates for the dirham BAHRAIN: The dinar OMAN: The country has maintained a peg of 0.3849 rial to the U.S. dollar since 1986.
MOROCCO: The dirham ALGERIA: The country’s dinar SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
NIGERIA: Africa’s biggest oil exporter operates a multiple exchange rate regime, which it has used to manage pressure on the currency. The official rate CFA FRANC REGION: Countries in the eight-nation West African CFA franc zone (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo) and the six-nation Central African CFA franc zone (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon) have their respective currencies pegged to the euro ETHIOPIA: Africa’s biggest coffee exporter has operated a carefully managed floating exchange rate regime since 1992 for its birr currency LATIN AMERICA
CUBA: The Caribbean island has had a dual monetary system since 1994 following the fall of the Soviet Union. The two currencies circulating in Cuba are the peso and the convertible peso, which is valued at 24 pesos. Possession of the dollar and other tradable currencies is legal in Cuba, but until recently have not been deemed legal tender for purchases. ASIA
CHINA: The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) allows the yuan to trade in a 2% range around a mid-point it fixes against the dollar each day. That mid-point is based on the yuan’s movement in the previous session and moves in the currencies of China’s main trading partners. It has also at times used an undefined “counter-cyclical factor” to adjust the mid-point and contain potentially big swings in sentiment. HONG KONG: The Hong Kong dollar SINGAPORE: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) manages policy through exchange rate settings, rather than through interest rates as other central banks do, letting the Singapore dollar VIETNAM: The central bank allows the dong to move in a band of 3% on either side of a daily “reference rate”, which is based on a basket of eight currencies. It does not disclose the composition of the basket. EUROPE
DENMARK: The country’s currency peg has been in place since the 1980s. Under the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) set up with the launch of the euro, Denmark agreed to keep the crown in a corridor of 2.25 percent either side of a central rate of 7.46038 crowns to the euro. In practice, it has kept it within 0.5 percent. BULGARIA: The lev has been pegged to the euro since the launch of the common currency and, prior to that, to the German Mark. The lev is pegged at 1.95583 to the euro by the currency board, a regime that constrains its central bank’s ability to set interest rates. CIS COUNTRIES: Few of the nine members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) still control their exchange rates. However, the pressure is mounting on any currency arrangements after Russia switched to a free-float in late 2014, prompting Belarus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan to follow suit in 2015 Moldova TURKMENISTAN: The manat Sources: International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Bank of International Settlement, Reuters
(Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Editing by Pravin Char)