East African Single Currency by 2031 Faces Economic and Political Obstacles

The original EAMU plan had targeted a common currency by 2024. That target was moved to 2031 after countries fell short of the required convergence and disagreed over where to base the East African Monetary Institute (EAMI), an institution intended to precede a regional central bank.

The EAC convergence framework sets four primary criteria: headline inflation below 8%, fiscal deficits under 3% of GDP, public debt below 50% of GDP, and foreign-exchange reserves covering at least 4.5 months of imports. According to BitKE, none of the partner states currently satisfies all four. Data presented to the bloc show that only four of the eight member states meet the public-debt threshold, while three meet the fiscal-deficit requirement.

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