The gross reserves of the CEMAC banking system (composed of free reserves and mandatory reserves) increase from 2,431.7 billion CFA francs (approximately 4.42 billion USD) at the end of June 2019 to 2,631.5 billion CFA francs (approximately 4.7 billion USD) at the end of June 2020, in view of data from the Bank of Central African States (BEE) BAG). The observation of an increase of 8.2% over one year, relatively lower than that observed between June 2018 and June 2019 (34.1%

According to the central bank, the evolution contributed to the increase in the share of reserves in the balance sheet of banks (reserves/balance sheet total) in CEMAC, which evolved from 17.4% in June 2019 to 17.9% a year later, a gain of 0.5 points compared to 3.4 points in June 2019. Consequently, this increase is due to the fact that free reserves, from 1,766.8 billion CFA francs at the end of June 2019, to 1,916.3 billion a year later, or 8.5%, after the jump of 39.2%

For the most part, reserve requirements increased by 7.6% to 715.2 billion compared to 664.9 billion in June 2019. “The main component of free reserves, the balance of the current accounts of banks at the Central Bank fell, during the period under review, from 1 467.9 billion to 1 583.6 billion, up 7.9%, after 51.8% observed previously. In addition, bank cash balances increased by 11.3% to reach 332.7 billion in June 2020,” explains the institution based in

As a reminder, 55 commercial banks drive the banking sector in the six countries of the sub-region. According to a recent monetary policy report published by the BEAC, activity was marked, in 2019, by evolutionary fluctuations, with total balance sheets which, at 31 December 2019, stood at 12,363 billion CFA francs, an increase of 5.3%, compared