Safeguards Assessments

The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) is a common central bank of the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAMU). The latest assessment of the BCEAO was completed on December 13, 2013. The assessment found that the bank continued to have a strong control environment and has, with the implementation of the 2010 Institutional Reform of the WAEMU, enhanced its governance framework. Specifically, an audit committee was established to oversee the audit and financial reporting processes, transparency has increased with more timely publication of the audited financial statements, and the BCEAO is committed to IFRS implementation by end-2014. The assessment also identified some limitations in the external audit process and recommended that steps be taken to ensure the adequacy of the mechanism through selection of a second experienced audit firm to conduct joint audits. All recommendations from the assessment have been implemented.

Exchange System

Burkina Faso is a member of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). The union’s common currency, the CFA franc, had been pegged to the French franc at the rate of CFAF 1 = F 0.02. Effective January 12, 1994, the CFA franc was devalued and the new parity set at CFAF 1 = F 0.01. Effective December 31, 1998, the parity was switched to the euro at a rate of CFAF 655.96 = €1.

The authorities confirmed that Burkina Faso had not imposed measures that could give rise to exchange restrictions subject to Fund jurisdiction. They will inform the Fund, if any such measure is introduced. Burkina Faso maintains an exchange system free of restrictions on the making of payments and transfers for current international transactions. External sustainability, competitiveness and exchange rate issues and were also discussed in the report “WAEMU: Common Policies of Member Countries” (Country Report No. 16/96 of April 1, 2016).

Article IV Consultations

Burkina Faso is on a 24-month consultation cycle. Discussions took place in Ouagadougou during October 18-29, 2016 for the 2016 Article IV Consultation and the Sixth Review under the Extended Credit Facility. The latest Article IV consultation was completed by the Executive Board on July 3, 2014 (Country Report No.14/215).

Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) and Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) Participation

A joint team of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund conducted a mission under the FSAP program in 2008. A regional FSAP for the WAEMU was undertaken in 2007. A ROSC on the data module was published in 2002.

Technical Assistance

Subject	TA provider	Date
Macroeconomics Analysis and Forecasting	AFRITAC West I	November 2016
Tax Policy	FAD	September 2016
Long-term advisor in public financial management	FAD	August 2016
Macroeconomics Analysis and Forecasting	AFRITAC West I	April 2016
Commitment authorizations / Payment appropriations	AFRITAC West I	April 2016
PFM / Program budgeting	AFRITAC West I	April 2016
Customs controls	AFRITAC West I	April 2016
Revenue administration: strengthening the medium-size enterprises unit	AFRITAC West I	March 2016
Implementation of the GFSM 2001-14	STA	May 2015
Improvement in issuance practices	AFRITAC West I	April 2015
Customs administration	AFRITAC West I	April 2015
PFM / Expenditure controls	AFRITAC West I	April 2015
Quarterly national accounts and provisional estimates	STA	April 2015
Automated risk management	AFRITAC West I	March 2015
Customs administration	AFRITAC West I	March 2015
Tax administration/Modernisation de l’administration fiscale	AFRITAC West I	March 2015
Tax administration/Modernisation de l’administration fiscale	AFRITAC West I	March 2015
Cash Management and Budget Execution	FAD	March 2015
Seminar on Budget Nomenclature	AFRITAC West I	February 2015
Macroeconomic Analysis and Forecasting Needs Assessment	AFRITAC West I	February 2015
Quarterly national accounts and provisional estimates	STA	February 2015
Revenue administration: medium-size enterprises unit	AFRITAC West/FAD	September 2014
Program budgets	AFRITAC West I	June 2014
Program-based budgeting	AFRITAC West I	June 2014
PFM TA mission to Burkina Faso	AFRITAC West I	June 2014
PFM (WAEMU)	AFRITAC West I	June 2014
Program-based budgeting	AFRITAC West I	June 2014
Review of the Implementation of the WAEMU Harmonized Public Financial Management Framework	FAD	April 2014
Medium Term Budgeting	FAD	February 2014
Review the Implementation of PFM Reforms	FAD	February 2014
Finalize Preparation of the New Audit Manual	FAD	February 2014
Real Sector Statistics and National Accounts	STA	September 2013
Mining Sector Fiscal Regime	FAD	July 2013
PFM Training for Court of Accounts	FAD	July 2013
Review of Progress of the Strategy to Implement the WAEMU Harmonized PFM Framework	FAD	April 2013
Report on the Government Finance Statistics Mission	AFRITAC West I	April 2013
Real Sector Statistics	STA	April 2013
Program Budgeting	AFRITAC West I	February 2013
Customs Administration	AFRITAC West I	January 2013

View Table

Subject	TA provider	Date
Macroeconomics Analysis and Forecasting	AFRITAC West I	November 2016
Tax Policy	FAD	September 2016
Long-term advisor in public financial management	FAD	August 2016
Macroeconomics Analysis and Forecasting	AFRITAC West I	April 2016
Commitment authorizations / Payment appropriations	AFRITAC West I	April 2016
PFM / Program budgeting	AFRITAC West I	April 2016
Customs controls	AFRITAC West I	April 2016
Revenue administration: strengthening the medium-size enterprises unit	AFRITAC West I	March 2016
Implementation of the GFSM 2001-14	STA	May 2015
Improvement in issuance practices	AFRITAC West I	April 2015
Customs administration	AFRITAC West I	April 2015
PFM / Expenditure controls	AFRITAC West I	April 2015
Quarterly national accounts and provisional estimates	STA	April 2015
Automated risk management	AFRITAC West I	March 2015
Customs administration	AFRITAC West I	March 2015
Tax administration/Modernisation de l’administration fiscale	AFRITAC West I	March 2015
Tax administration/Modernisation de l’administration fiscale	AFRITAC West I	March 2015
Cash Management and Budget Execution	FAD	March 2015
Seminar on Budget Nomenclature	AFRITAC West I	February 2015
Macroeconomic Analysis and Forecasting Needs Assessment	AFRITAC West I	February 2015
Quarterly national accounts and provisional estimates	STA	February 2015
Revenue administration: medium-size enterprises unit	AFRITAC West/FAD	September 2014
Program budgets	AFRITAC West I	June 2014
Program-based budgeting	AFRITAC West I	June 2014
PFM TA mission to Burkina Faso	AFRITAC West I	June 2014
PFM (WAEMU)	AFRITAC West I	June 2014
Program-based budgeting	AFRITAC West I	June 2014
Review of the Implementation of the WAEMU Harmonized Public Financial Management Framework	FAD	April 2014
Medium Term Budgeting	FAD	February 2014
Review the Implementation of PFM Reforms	FAD	February 2014
Finalize Preparation of the New Audit Manual	FAD	February 2014
Real Sector Statistics and National Accounts	STA	September 2013
Mining Sector Fiscal Regime	FAD	July 2013
PFM Training for Court of Accounts	FAD	July 2013
Review of Progress of the Strategy to Implement the WAEMU Harmonized PFM Framework	FAD	April 2013
Report on the Government Finance Statistics Mission	AFRITAC West I	April 2013
Real Sector Statistics	STA	April 2013
Program Budgeting	AFRITAC West I	February 2013
Customs Administration	AFRITAC West I	January 2013

Resident Representative

Ms. Mame Astou Diouf was appointed Resident Representative to Burkina Faso in September 2016 and has been stationed in Ouagadougou since that time.

I. Assessment of Data Adequacy for Surveillance

General: Data provision has some shortcomings, but is broadly adequate for surveillance. The data categories most affected are the national accounts and price statistics. Burkina Faso is receiving technical assistance (TA) from the IMF on an ongoing basis, which is being partially financed by Japan.

National accounts: Annual GDP estimates are compiled by economic activity, by institutional sector accounts and by expenditure categories at current and constant prices (1999=100). Data quality is affected by the scarcity of suitable sources and deficiencies in statistical practices. Weaknesses include: coverage of the informal sector (due to limited, out of date surveys, and a failure of small enterprises to submit accounting statements or tax declarations); private household consumption data, which is not adequately validated with supply-use tables and updated household budget-consumption surveys; and delayed rebasing of NA. The national informal sector and employment survey was delayed to 2015 as a result of the 2014 popular uprising. Data were collected at end 2015. Data cleaning work has begun and is now completed. Work on the survey on the informal gold sector is expected to start before the end of the year and its findings will inform the rebasing exercise, which is expected to be completed by 2018. The new base year will be 2015.

Price statistics: The CPI (2008=100) only covers African households in the capital; it excludes various types of purchased goods and services, and services of owner-occupied dwellings and prices of unavailable products are presumed unchanged for up to three months rather than imputed from recorded prices changes of closely related products. The producer price index and the wholesale price index are neither compiled nor envisaged due to budgetary constraints.

Government finance statistics: A committee oversees the compilation of government finance statistics, strengthening coordination among fiscal agencies. The provision of expenditure data has also improved with the adoption of functional presentation of expenditure. The remaining areas for improvement include mainly the extension of the TOFE coverage to the general government and basing its compilation on the Treasury ledger.

Monetary finance statistics: Most of the problems in monetary statistics are not specific to Burkina Faso but affect all member countries of the WAEMU. The BCEAO has encountered difficulties in estimating currency in circulation in each WAEMU member country due to large backlogs of unsorted banknotes held by the central bank in its various national agencies.

Balance of Payments: The informal cross-border trade in goods is not estimated and could be large. Information on remittances should be improved. Consistency between balance of payments (BOP) and international investment position (IIP) should be checked. External debt statistics as reported to QEDS cover only public debt.

II. Data Standards and Quality

Burkina Faso participates in the General Data Dissemination Standard since December 28, 2001. A data ROSC visited Burkina Faso during May 8-21, 2003.

III. Reporting to STA

Balance of payments (BOP): The BCEAO’s National Direction located in Ouagadougou is compiling annual BOP, IIP and CDIS data for Burkina and reporting them to STA. The reported BOP and IIP data are in line with the BPM 6 format. Burkina Faso participates in the Coordinated Direct Investment Survey (CDIS) and reports to STA annual direct investment data by partner country. The reported CDIS data are based on an annual survey of transactions, crosschecked with the annual Financial Reports of the companies, as available in BCEAO. The BCEAO does not provide any metadata (describing the methodology used for data collection) in relation to any of the datasets reported to STA.

Government Finances: Since October 2010, annual data and quarterly data covering the budget of the central government are reported to STA for publication in International Financial Statistics and the Government Finance Statistics yearbook. The latest reported data cover 2014. The BCEAO reports monetary data to STA with a lag of at most three months.

Burkina Faso: Table of Common Indicators Required for Surveillance

^1/Any reserve assets that are pledged or otherwise encumbered should be specified separately. Also, data should comprise short-term liabilities linked to a foreign currency but settled by other means as well as the notional values of financial derivatives to pay and to receive foreign currency, including those linked to a foreign currency but settled by other means.

^2/Both market-based and officially-determined, including discount rates, money market rates, rates on treasury bills, notes and bonds.

^3/Foreign, domestic bank, and domestic nonbank financing.

^4/The general government consists of the central government (budgetary funds, extra budgetary funds, and social security funds) and state and local governments.

^5/Including currency and maturity composition.

^6/Includes external gross financial asset and liability positions vis-à-vis nonresidents.

^7/Daily (D); weekly (W); monthly (M); quarterly (Q); annually (A); irregular (I); and not available (NA).

^8/These columns should only be included for countries for which Data ROSC (or a Substantive Update) has been published.

^9/Reflects the assessment provided in the data ROSC or the Substantive Update (published on March 10, 2004, and based on the findings of the mission that took place during May 8-21, 2003) for the dataset corresponding to the variable in each row. The assessment indicates whether international standards concerning concepts and definitions, scope, classification/sectorization, and basis for recording, respectively, are fully observed (O); largely observed (LO); largely not observed (LNO); not observed (NO); and not available (NA).

^10/Same as footnote 9 except referring to international standards concerning, respectively, source data, assessment of source data, statistical techniques, assessment and validation of intermediate data and statistical outputs, and revision studies.

Burkina Faso: Table of Common Indicators Required for Surveillance

	Date of latest observation	Date received	Frequency of data6	Frequency of reporting7	Frequency of publication7	Memo Items:8
						Data quality –methodological soundness9	Data quality –accuracy and reliability9
Exchange Rates	Current	Current	D	D	D
International Reserve Assets and Reserve Liabilities of the Monetary Authorities1	2/2016	4/2016	M	M	M
Reserve/Base Money	2/2016	4/2016	M	M	M	LO, LO, LNO, O	LO, O, O, O, O
Broad Money	2/2016	4/2016	M	M	M
Central Bank Balance Sheet	2/2016	4/2016	M	M	M
Consolidated Balance Sheet of the Banking System	2/2016	4/2016	M	M	M
Interest Rates2	3/2016	4/2016	M	M	M
Consumer Price Index	3/2016	4/2016	M	M	M	O, LNO, O, O	LNO, O, O, O, NA
Revenue, Expenditure, Balance and Composition of Financing3 – General Government4	12/2014	10/2015	I	I	I	O, LO, O, O	O, LO, O, O, LNO
Revenue, Expenditure, Balance and Composition of Financing3– Central Government	12/2016	3/2016	M	M	M
Stocks of Central Government and Central Government-Guaranteed Debt5	12/2015	3/2016	A	A	A
External Current Account Balance	2014	3/2016	A	A	A	O, O, O, O	LO, O, LO, O, O
Exports and Imports of Goods and Services	2014	3/2016	A	A	A
GDP/GNP	2013	5/2015	A	A	A	LO, LNO, LNO, LO	LNO, LNO, LO, LO, LNO
International Investment Position6	2014	1/2016	A	A	A

^1/Any reserve assets that are pledged or otherwise encumbered should be specified separately. Also, data should comprise short-term liabilities linked to a foreign currency but settled by other means as well as the notional values of financial derivatives to pay and to receive foreign currency, including those linked to a foreign currency but settled by other means.

^2/Both market-based and officially-determined, including discount rates, money market rates, rates on treasury bills, notes and bonds.

^3/Foreign, domestic bank, and domestic nonbank financing.

^4/The general government consists of the central government (budgetary funds, extra budgetary funds, and social security funds) and state and local governments.

^5/Including currency and maturity composition.

^6/Includes external gross financial asset and liability positions vis-à-vis nonresidents.

^7/Daily (D); weekly (W); monthly (M); quarterly (Q); annually (A); irregular (I); and not available (NA).

^8/These columns should only be included for countries for which Data ROSC (or a Substantive Update) has been published.

^9/Reflects the assessment provided in the data ROSC or the Substantive Update (published on March 10, 2004, and based on the findings of the mission that took place during May 8-21, 2003) for the dataset corresponding to the variable in each row. The assessment indicates whether international standards concerning concepts and definitions, scope, classification/sectorization, and basis for recording, respectively, are fully observed (O); largely observed (LO); largely not observed (LNO); not observed (NO); and not available (NA).

^10/Same as footnote 9 except referring to international standards concerning, respectively, source data, assessment of source data, statistical techniques, assessment and validation of intermediate data and statistical outputs, and revision studies.

View Table

Burkina Faso: Table of Common Indicators Required for Surveillance

	Date of latest observation	Date received	Frequency of data6	Frequency of reporting7	Frequency of publication7	Memo Items:8
						Data quality –methodological soundness9	Data quality –accuracy and reliability9
Exchange Rates	Current	Current	D	D	D
International Reserve Assets and Reserve Liabilities of the Monetary Authorities1	2/2016	4/2016	M	M	M
Reserve/Base Money	2/2016	4/2016	M	M	M	LO, LO, LNO, O	LO, O, O, O, O
Broad Money	2/2016	4/2016	M	M	M
Central Bank Balance Sheet	2/2016	4/2016	M	M	M
Consolidated Balance Sheet of the Banking System	2/2016	4/2016	M	M	M
Interest Rates2	3/2016	4/2016	M	M	M
Consumer Price Index	3/2016	4/2016	M	M	M	O, LNO, O, O	LNO, O, O, O, NA
Revenue, Expenditure, Balance and Composition of Financing3 – General Government4	12/2014	10/2015	I	I	I	O, LO, O, O	O, LO, O, O, LNO
Revenue, Expenditure, Balance and Composition of Financing3– Central Government	12/2016	3/2016	M	M	M
Stocks of Central Government and Central Government-Guaranteed Debt5	12/2015	3/2016	A	A	A
External Current Account Balance	2014	3/2016	A	A	A	O, O, O, O	LO, O, LO, O, O
Exports and Imports of Goods and Services	2014	3/2016	A	A	A
GDP/GNP	2013	5/2015	A	A	A	LO, LNO, LNO, LO	LNO, LNO, LO, LO, LNO
International Investment Position6	2014	1/2016	A	A	A

^1/Any reserve assets that are pledged or otherwise encumbered should be specified separately. Also, data should comprise short-term liabilities linked to a foreign currency but settled by other means as well as the notional values of financial derivatives to pay and to receive foreign currency, including those linked to a foreign currency but settled by other means.

^2/Both market-based and officially-determined, including discount rates, money market rates, rates on treasury bills, notes and bonds.

^3/Foreign, domestic bank, and domestic nonbank financing.

^4/The general government consists of the central government (budgetary funds, extra budgetary funds, and social security funds) and state and local governments.

^5/Including currency and maturity composition.

^6/Includes external gross financial asset and liability positions vis-à-vis nonresidents.

^7/Daily (D); weekly (W); monthly (M); quarterly (Q); annually (A); irregular (I); and not available (NA).

^8/These columns should only be included for countries for which Data ROSC (or a Substantive Update) has been published.

^9/Reflects the assessment provided in the data ROSC or the Substantive Update (published on March 10, 2004, and based on the findings of the mission that took place during May 8-21, 2003) for the dataset corresponding to the variable in each row. The assessment indicates whether international standards concerning concepts and definitions, scope, classification/sectorization, and basis for recording, respectively, are fully observed (O); largely observed (LO); largely not observed (LNO); not observed (NO); and not available (NA).

^10/Same as footnote 9 except referring to international standards concerning, respectively, source data, assessment of source data, statistical techniques, assessment and validation of intermediate data and statistical outputs, and revision studies.