Good governance efforts within the Ministry of Economy and Finance continue to bear fruit.

Renewed vitality. The ariary starts the year 2021 under good prospects. The Malagasy currency is stabilizing and even appreciating against the dollar. On the interbank currency market, yesterday, the euro was at 4,580 ariary against 4,511 ariary at the beginning of the year, a very slight depreciation of 19 points. On the other hand, against the dollar, which is the currency with which the vast majority of Madagascar's trade takes place, the ariary appreciates. The dollar was at 3,822 ariary yesterday, against 3,905 ariary at the beginning of the year, a gain of 83 points in less than a month. In any case, to see the currency curve of the Banky Foiben'i Madagasikara the ariary has recently shown a reassuring stability.

Good prospects. At the origin of this situation, which augurs good prospects for the future of the Malagasy currency, is, among other things, the good policy adopted by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, in terms of currency repatriation . This has improved markedly in recent years. In 2020, for example, out of a matured commitment of more than 5,000 billion ariary, about 4,370 billion were repatriated, a repatriation rate of 86%. And again, this is a provisional figure that is set to improve since the repatriation period is 90 days, companies are still continuing to repatriate today. In short, the repatriation rate will far exceed 90% at the end of the period. This is a good performance when we know that this year, due to the health crisis, easing measures have been decided in favor of companies.

GIS-OC. A good performance that can be explained by the effectiveness of the new system implemented since 2017. This is the Integrated Foreign Exchange Management System (GIS-OC) that the Ministry of Economy and Finance applies carefully. THE GIS-OC consists of the computerization and automation of the processing of foreign exchange-related files and aims at good governance and transparency of management. Indeed, previously operations were done manually with paper media and file exchanges. This was obviously very heavy for the more than 100,000 direct debits to be processed each year. A burden that is no longer appropriate with the GIS-OC whose advantages are, among other things, to allow the administration to have better traceability and better monitoring of the evolution of foreign exchange operations. It also facilitates the detection of foreign exchange violations.

rigour. But the economic advantage is obviously this improvement in the repatriation of foreign currency. Indeed, since the repatriated currencies must be transferred on the MID, this leads to an increase in foreign currency offers and therefore the possibility of an appreciation of the ariary. Hence this current trend towards the stability of the Malagasy currency. In short, the rigour shown by the current authorities in terms of foreign exchange regulation plays a significant role in stabilizing the ariary. Speaking of rigour, the current administration stands out for its new attitude towards operators who violate foreign exchange regulations. In agreement with the government, the Minister of Economy and Finance has recently filed a complaint against companies liable to infringements of foreign exchange regulations. A rigor that is however not blind since relaxation measures are provided for operators in good faith.