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A cryptomoney is a virtual currency. There are currently nearly 5,000 of them in the world. The first and best known of these is Bitcoin, created in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Thought as an alternative to the current banking and financial system, it is decentralized (unlike traditional currencies which are managed by central banks), and is intended to be reliable. To do so, it is based on the electronic signature and the blockchain.

Several economic agents are beginning to consider these cryptomonnages for real transactions. Thus in August 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the American banking regulator, authorized American banks to create Bitcoin accounts for their users.

In Africa, we distinguish between countries that prohibit trading and possession of cryptomoney (such as Morocco, Algeria, Libya); countries that do not yet have a clear position on the issue, but are taking a close interest in it (such as Cameroon); countries that are progressive with regard to these new technologies (Tunisia, Senegal, Mauritius or South Africa for example).

The value of a bitcoin (BTC) currently varies between 13,000 and 14,000 USD; that of ethereum (ETH) is about 384 USD (which corresponds to the second largest capitalization in the world among cryptodevices). The highest bitcoin valuation was on December 15, 2017 with 1 bitcoin worth USD 19,650 while the highest ethereum valuation was on January 12, 2018 with 1 ethereum worth USD 1,386.

Financial inclusion means that economic agents (households and companies) have access to financial services adapted to their needs at lower cost: money transfers, payments, savings, credit, insurance, etc. It plays a decisive role in poverty reduction and the socio-economic development of countries. The recent development of "mobile money" mobile payment instruments could accelerate the financial inclusion of Benin's largely underbanked population.

This is the field of economic science devoted to the organization of the health care system and the determinants of the supply and demand for care. The National Health Expenditure (NHE) is the aggregate used for comparisons between OECD countries. National health expenditure is the final consumption expenditure on health goods and services. It includes public and private (including household) spending on curative, rehabilitative and long-term care, as well as on medical goods such as pharmaceuticals. It also includes expenditures on public health and preventive programs and administration. This indicator is presented as an overall figure and by source of funding (public/mandatory, voluntary and out-of-pocket). It can be expressed as a percentage of GDP, as a percentage of total national expenditure.

Example: in 2017, current health expenditure amounted to 3.7% of gross domestic product in Benin (WHO).

An essential attribute of the State is the provision of services necessary for the well-being of the population (education, road, hospital and energy infrastructures, etc.) and the stabilization of the economy to limit imbalances (e.g. high unemployment, high inflation).

To finance its expenditures, the State has a first resource: revenues (taxes, VAT, indirect taxes, etc.). However, they are almost never sufficient to fully finance its expenditures. Thus, the State very often resorts to the <<debt>>, known as <<public or State debt.

Public debt represents all the commitments of a State (central and local governments and various organizations); it is the total amount of loans issued (or guaranteed) by the State in the form of bonds on the financial markets and in return for interest payments at future dates.

It can be financed by economic agents not resident in the State and is referred to as <<external debt>> or by economic agents resident in the State and is referred to as <<internal or domestic debt>>.

The State's creditors can be public such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the African Development Bank, the Central Banks, etc.... The State can also finance itself from private investors (Banks and investment funds) or from other States.

Example: In Benin, the outstanding public debt in the 1st quarter of 2020 amounts to 3857.97 billion FCFA (6.92 billion USD), or 43.92% of GDP. It includes CFAF 2161.84 billion (USD 3.88 billion) in debt denominated in foreign currency - i.e. 24.61% of GDP and CFAF 1696.13 billion (USD 3.04 billion) in debt denominated in local currency - i.e. 19.31% of GDP (Source: Caisse Autonome d'Amortissement (CAA), Benin).

Insurance companies play several roles in the economy.

They help to mitigate the economic consequences of damage to persons or property (which must be the consequence of unforeseeable events). They also compensate for the economic costs related to life events (retirement, death, access to university, etc.) and can also serve as an excellent means of saving in some cases.

With capitalization products, insurers drain more and more savings every year thanks to certain tax incentives for subscribers.

Finally, the savings collected by insurers are reinjected into national economies through various investments in treasury bills and fund investments. However, this role remains minor in Africa, where the size of the insurance industry is relatively modest.

The insurance sector is generally highly regulated. In Francophone Africa, supervision is provided by ICIM (Inter-African Conference on Insurance Markets.).

An economic crisis is a context in which economic activity records a sharp and sudden decline compared to its usual level. It may extend to several sectors of activity and over several years depending on its extent, leading to difficulties in the operation of companies and, moreover, to more or less massive layoffs.

For example :

the financial crisis of 2008, the bankruptcy of the American bank Lehman Brothers, which was led by subprime mortgages

the economic crisis of 2020, the collapse of global economic activity following the rapid spread of the coronavirus epidemic.

To encourage changes in behaviours, public authorities introduce laws, taxes or raise awareness. This requires immediate adherence and a high level of motivation on the part of the agents: 2 conditions that are difficult to meet. Indeed, several cognitive and emotional biases influence the decision-making of economic agents, and must be taken into account for the implementation of good public policy. To do this, behavioral economics shows that agents are rather irrational and predictable, and then proposes a set of tools to influence their decisions, including the nudge theory (Richard Thaler, 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics).

A nudge, or gentle nudge, consists of making small changes in an environment to change behaviors and help those with an intention to act, without constraining the individual and in the latter's own interest.

Example : a fake fly drawn on the bottom of the urinal in the toilets at Amsterdam airport reduced maintenance costs by 80%.

Fiscal policy is mainly financed by tax revenues and debt.
In a system where the informal economy predominates, the state is financed mainly by debt.

What is an informal economy?

The informal economy refers to a set of economic activities, enterprises, jobs and workers that are not subject to national labor legislation, income tax or the right to social protection or certain other social benefits (notice of dismissal, severance pay, annual or sick leave, etc.).

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO, 2018), the informal economy employs more than 61% of the world's working population, the majority of which is in emerging and developing countries. More particularly in Africa, 85.8% of jobs are informal.
The informal economy leads to a decline in tax revenues, which can hamper the government's ability to spend on social programs and investments.

For example:

- Activity of selling smuggled gasoline known as "kpayo" on the roadsides in Benin

- Undeclared activity of small traders and resellers

- Activity of motorcycle-taxi drivers in Benin called "Zemidjans".

#DATA STORYTELLING

Data Storytelling is the ability to tell a story with the data, and to customize the data seen according to the audience. A category of Business Intelligence, Data Storytelling is a relatively recent concept based on Data Visualization or "Dataviz". Dataviz is the art of communicating complex figures and information, transforming them into visual objects: graphs, maps, rankings, etc.).

The idea is to be able to go further in terms of ease of understanding and pedagogy. The data will tell a story based on the needs of the profession. We then go beyond the simple fact of presenting series of numbers in a table. The information is accessible and understandable by everyone, thanks to the story that is told. We are no longer just talking to the Data and Business Intelligence departments of large companies, but to all employees who want to know more about the company's activity, through the data collected every day.

Example: During a monthly decision-making committee meeting, we are interested in the top 10 countries in terms of sales volume. Then being in a curious mood, among this Top 10, we want to have more details about the top 3 sales, in volume AND in value.

#Hebdo Monetary Policy

Monetary Policy is the overall of polices taken by monetary authorities such as central banks. It mainly focus on interest rate, money supply, reserve manipulations. The primary objectives of monetary policies (MoPo) in countries is to stabilize growth, maintain lower rate of unemployment. In case of lack of autonomy, central banks may be required to move its monetary instrument and targets in tandem with foreign MoPo, even though local economic situations may be very different from the foreign economies’. The consequence is not only inadequate progress but also unneeded and harmful pressure on economy.

#The "invisible hand" of the market

Adam Smith, an 18th century Scottish academic, was one of the first economists to advocate liberalism. He believed that the freedom of individuals leads to a win-win situation for society as a whole.

Thus, each individual, by seeking his or her own interest, contributes unintentionally to the well-being of society. Indeed, in a market economy, every person will seek to increase his personal satisfaction through financial enrichment. As a result, the individual will select the most promising sectors or those for which he or she has the highest skills.

In this way, the operations of agents, apparently independent of each other, would be coordinated by an "invisible hand" that would make it possible to achieve the general interest. The search for personal enrichment benefits overall well-being since it encourages people to give the best of themselves and ultimately to boost economic activity.

Example : The baker who kneads his bread in the best possible way (not out of altruism) to satisfy his customers and enrich himself (encourages consumption...).

#The labour market

The labor market can be defined as the encounter between the supply of labor (by households) and the demand for labor expressed by firms to produce. To analyze the dynamics and performance of such a market, the International Labour Organization (ILO) proposes key indicators. These include the unemployment rate, which measures the proportion of the labor force that is not working, is available for work, and is looking for work. Although this indicator has long been a policy priority, it neglects other important aspects of the labor market, such as underemployment (mismatches in working hours and qualifications) and, more generally, the quality or indecency of work. For example, in most African countries the unemployment rate is relatively low. However, job insecurity persists, which can be explained by the predominance of informality in African economies.

Thus, the goal of decent work, i.e., employment that provides material well-being, economic security, equal opportunity, and opportunities for human development, is today at the center of global labor priorities (8th Goal of Sustainable Development).

Some stylized facts :

    According to ILO model estimates (November 2018), the unemployment rate in 2020 is estimated at 6.8% for the entire African continent, 11.8% for North Africa and 5.9% for Sub-Saharan Africa.

    The status of African workers can best be summarized by the sum of the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate. This sum exceeds 50% in most West African countries (ADB, 2018).

    The cumulative share of vulnerable jobs and the unemployed in the labor force has reached a peak of about 90% in Benin (ADB, 2018).

#Monetary creation & destruction

After the public debt, AJEB offers you today an explanation of the concepts of #creation and #destruction of money. One of the main roles of money (banknotes, current accounts) is to serve as an intermediary for exchanges between economic agents. In general, we all participate in the processes of creation and destruction of money on a daily basis through our actions (bank loans, purchases).

In fact, we speak of money creation when the quantity of money in circulation known as the "money supply" increases. When a bank grants a loan to customers, it creates money: loans make deposits. Conversely, we speak of monetary destruction when the central bank withdraws money in circulation or when banks are reimbursed for loans.

Finally, suppose that instead of depositing a guarantee before obtaining credit, the bank agrees to lend you €10,000 out of trust; this is called ex-nihilo creation (from nothing). However, banks cannot create money and lend it indefinitely because they are constrained by regulations and the monetary policy of central banks.

#Fiscal policy

The COVID-19 crisis more than the global financial crisis (GFC) poses significant challenges to fiscal policies. Government around the world, in response to the COVID-19 epidemic (shutdowns, layoffs, and firm exits), have taken extraordinary measures to tame the pandemic and to mitigate its recessionary impact (boost demand and limit job losses is the motto).

Fiscal policy is the macroeconomic stabilization instrument used by the government. Main tools of fiscal policy are government expenditures (consumption and investment spending…) and tax revenues (on Resource related revenues and non-resource revenues (e.g Corporate income taxes; incorporate income taxes; VAT; International trade taxes)).

Examples of Fiscal policies during COVID-19 crisis in France: (i) liquidity support through postponements of social security and tax payments for companies and accelerated refund of tax credits (e.g. CIT and VAT); (ii) support for wages of workers under the reduced-hour scheme (Source: IMF)