Monetary economics, money and banking, alternative and complementary currencies.

This paper reviews, briefly, the history and development of traditional monetary systems, beginning with barter and non-monetary exchange. A survey of the colonial and post-colonial United States illuminates the salient stages of the progression towards money as a means of exchange. Next, a history and development of local exchange systems is presented, beginning with the Middle Ages and ending with the advent of contemporary systems. It is demonstrated that the historical record of monetary experimentation is replete with lessons for present-day local exchange system organizers.

The new designs for the US Paper Money between 1914 and 1918: Federal Reserve Notes and Federal Reserve Bank Notes during the Word War I. Contents:
BEFORE THE FED, THE FED, THE NEW NOTES, 12 BANK SEALS, THE NEW TRADITION, 2 TREASURY SEALS, DATES, FIVE-DOLLAR BILL, TEN-DOLLAR BILL, TWENTY-DOLLAR BILL, FIFTY-DOLLAR BILL, ONE HUNDRED-DOLLAR BILL, ONE-DOLLAR BILL, TWO-DOLLAR BILL, $500 BILL, $1,000 BILL, $5,000 BILL, $10,000 BILL, 4 AUTHORIZATIONS ON THE “FED” PAPER MONEY (1914-1918), FINAL WORDS.

All of economics - hypothetico-axiomatic deductive equilibrium economics that is - agrees that lower interest rates stimulate growth and higher rates slow growth. This claim has been made so frequently in the past half century and beyond that one likes to assume that it refers to a well-established empirical fact. However, there is no empirical evidence. This paper presents the first thorough empirical study on this question. The claim is found to be untrue. There are major consequences for economics, research methodology and ecological economics.

Social media, e-commerce, global peer-to-peer technologies, and the near ubiquity of computers and smartphones allow people to interact, trust, and exchange value across traditional socio-economic control boundaries and over significant distances.  Since the creation in 2008 of a new cryptographic currency system called Bitcoin, a financial technology market sector of about 250 billion USD has rapidly emerged, raising questions about the nature of currency in society and whether new types of non-national money are warranted and viable.  This debate has pitted heterodox economic interests against orthodox economic interests while it has rekindled interest in theories that view money as a social construct with a multitude of potential forms beyond ‘state’ or fiat money, and in forms that are increasingly predicted to be purely digital in the future.  This study seeks to explain the policy, social, and economic factors that underlie perceptions and usage of these new currency types.  First, I develop a novel theoretical matrix of trust and control to explain the conditions under which people choose to use any monetary system.  Then, I test this theory with a quantitative analysis of policy, trust, socio-economic, and cultural factors affecting the perceptions and usage of the new currency systems of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 28 countries.  This analysis draws on usage metrics recorded from the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency network systems, attitudinal data from the World Values Survey (WVS) and European Values Study (EVS), and a proprietary survey of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency perceptions and usage in 15 countries conducted by Ipsos for the behavioral economics research department at ING Group.  I performed principal component analyses (PCA) to reduce factors among collected metrics, and I then integrated the findings of the PCA into a series of ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions along three primary vectors: trust, control, and culture.  Based on my empirical findings, I group these new currency system users’ personality perspectives into four categories: Evangelists, Pragmatists, Skeptics, and Speculators.  The analysis finds Bitcoin and cryptocurrency perceptions and usage are not correlated with the strictness or laxness of public policies concerning Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.  The analysis also finds Bitcoin interest as measured by Google Search Trends is not correlated to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency perceptions and usage but is correlated to several lower socio-economic metrics related to crime and lack of confidence in law enforcement and government control.  There is more favorable perception and usage of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in countries with less developed socio-economic profiles, and less favorable perceptions and usage in countries with more developed socio-economic profiles.  There is more favorable perception and usage of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in countries with aggregate lower generalized trust and lower democratic tendencies, and less favorable perceptions and usage in countries with aggregate higher generalized trust and higher democratic tendencies.  Overall, the findings show the extent to which trends in usage and perception of the emergent currencies of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are associated with basic cultural and attitudinal tendencies that are not necessarily related to public policy or other typical monetary theory-based controls.  I conclude that a matrix of trust and control is effective at demonstrating how sociological factors explain the landscape of historical, extant, and emergent currency systems and this matrix predicts where Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies situate in society relative to these other currency systems.

This article provides a quality check of the degrowth movement’s proposal of local currencies as tools for advancing socially equitable and ecologically sustainable degrowth. The article draws comprehensively upon mainly English-language academic research about four widespread local currency types – LETS, time banks, HOUR currencies, and convertible local currencies (CLCs) – to assess their performance with respect to four degrowth-related criteria: community-building, advancement of alternative values in economic exchange, facilitation of alternative livelihoods, and eco-localization. LETS have been found to support alternative livelihoods under quite uncommon conditions, and contribute indirectly to eco-localization by moderately facilitating informal resale, repair, and sharing of commercially produced goods, although their burdensome management and confinement to small memberships limit their usefulness. Time banks help expand social networks, and are best at reaching the socially excluded. However, they are confined to unskilled personal services and dependent on grant funding. HOUR currencies do not stand out with regard to any criteria, but may have a minor capacity to promote local purchasing. CLCs are best at attracting local businesses, but no significant evidence of their said capacity to localize supply chains has surfaced as yet, and their business-friendly design works to the detriment of other criteria. In sum, existing research provides a very weak basis for advocating local currencies as tools for purposive degrowth. Local currencies are here categorized as two utopian socialist approaches: the behind-society’s-back variety of LETS and HOUR currencies, and the appeal-to-elites variety of time banks and CLCs. Marx and Engels’s critiques of these approaches remain valid: successful monetary systems require resources that are not available behind society’s back, notably the power to levy taxes and designate by which means they can be paid. Local currencies that appeal for elite support – without mass popular backing – have shaken off most radical connotations, and are vulnerable to changing policy agendas. Given the present historical conjuncture of popular outrage against the banking sector, this paper argues that the degrowth movement would improve its chances of contributing to purposive degrowth by prioritizing government-centred ecological reform of the monetary system over local currencies.

This is the sixth in a series of seven papers on interest rates and it covers the various roles of interest rates: primary tool of monetary policy, bridge between present and future consumption, advancing consumption / investment with debt, interest rates’ inverse relationship with asset prices and the wealth effect, the role of interest rates in derivative instrument pricing, and interest rates’ role in foreign sector issues. The seven papers cover: (1) what are interest rates?; (2) relationship of interest rates; (3) composition of interest rates; (4) interest rate discovery; (5) bank liquidity & interest rate discovery; (6) role of interest rates; (7) an optimal rate of interest: the natural rate.

A brief article on a proposal to "clean" the current monetary system by injecting new base money directly into the economy and rebalancing the issuance of debt by higher capital requirements. The effect of this would be to redirect new money towards the productive base and away from the speculative economy.

En Argentine, depuis l'indépendance du pays, y-compris après que sa structure fédérale se soit stabilisée et qu'un régime monétaire centralisé y ait été institué, un nombre conséquent de Provinces ont émis des monnaies fiscales sous forme de billets de petites dénominations. L'objet de cet article est de sortir de l'oubli et de décrire ce phénomène monétaire « hors normes » qui, malgré sa récurrence jusqu'à nos jours, son importance historique, son impact économique, et ses possibles enseignements pour le futur de l'union européenne et de la zone euro, n'a fait jusqu'à ce jour que très rarement l'objet de recherches tant en histoire qu'en économie. Dans cette perspective, après avoir analysé dans une première partie les caractéristiques générales des monnaies fiscales émises par des pouvoirs publics locaux et les problèmes posés par le désintérêt des sciences sociales à leur égard, on décrira dans une deuxième partie les quatre vagues d'émission par les Provinces argentines de ce type de monnaie qui montrent l'importance et la tendance à la réémergence du phénomène. Dans une troisième partie on s'attachera à analyser la diversité du phénomène, à saisir la variété des types de monnaies qui sont inventées, et à examiner les liens qui peuvent exister entre les formes de monnayage choisies et les succès ou échecs des dispositifs, saisis à travers leurs capacités ou incapacités à se maintenir en tant que monnaies complémentaires à la monnaie fédérale de cours légal.

This paper is dedicated to the complementary currency called bocade and issued by the Argentinian Province of Tucuman between 1985 and 2003. We shall first examine when, where and why this currency was issued, and how it functionned at its outset and evolved as a CC. Then we shall give an evaluation of bocade’s economic efficiency and political viability. Has it been useful and successful? Was its value in the national unit of account maintained at parity? Was it inflationnist as considered by the doxa? Did it favour growth at the provincial level? Did it reduce the provincial public debt?

To be published in a revised and reduced version as Chapter 8 in G. Gomez (ed.), Monetary Plurality in Local, Regional and Global Economies, London, Routledge, 2018.

Professional text, descriptive: Hundreds of financial crises have destroyed economies, enterprises, and individual existences over the last decades. Financial reforms are due. One contribution could be complementary monetary systems that are around since long. This paper is descriptive; it introduces how alternative currencies operate and examines proven examples. It looks at theoretical foundations provided by traditional economics, Silvio Gesell, Rudolf Steiner, Bernard Lietaer, and others. The article argues about pro and cons of complementary currencies and questions if they can fulfil the many promises and hopes. It is concluded that the idea of alternative money merits further examining and experimenting, not least because of the opportunities of the Internet and interest from civil society.

In consideration of the high adolescent fertility rate in Nigeria, the growth effect of this phenomenon is investigated using annual time series data that span the period from 1981 to 2016. Alternative estimation techniques including the ARDL bounds test approach to co-integration and error correction, FMOLS and CCR are employed for the analysis. Results from the analysis indicate that adolescent fertility negatively affects economic growth in Nigeria in the short-and long-run. This suggests that adolescent fertility in Nigeria has serious implications for economic growth as it adversely affects it. The study therefore recommends efforts by the government to address the high adolescent fertility rate in the country. Specific actions steps include prioritizing girl-child education, incorporating sex education in high (or secondary) school curriculum, formulating laws to stop early marriages, and job creation to engage and economically empower parents or guardians of the adolescents to be able to provide adequate care for their adolescent children.

Στα χρόνια της σύγχρονης καπιταλιστικής κρίσης οι εναλλακτικές οικονομικές συλλογικότητες, όπως  είναι  οι Τράπεζες χρόνου αλλά και τα δίκτυα LETS (Local Exchange Trading Systems), έχουν πάρει εκτεταμένες μηντιακές διαστάσεις. Μια τέτοια περίπτωση είναι και το Δίκτυο Ανταλλαγών και Αλληλεγγύης Μαγνησίας, που ιδρύθηκε το 2009,  έχει έδρα τον Βόλο και σήμερα αριθμεί 1300 μέλη.  Το δίκτυο αυτό εφαρμόζει την ανταλλαγή  προϊόντων και υπηρεσιών, έχοντας δημιουργήσει ως μέσο συναλλαγών τη δική του Τοπική Εναλλακτική  Μονάδα (ΤΕΜ), μια ηλεκτρονικής μορφής και όχι απτή μονάδα. Επιπλέον, οι συμμετέχοντες επιδιώκουν να προσδιορίσουν τα νοήματα και το περιεχόμενο τόσο των οικονομικών όσο και των κοινωνικών τους πρακτικών μέσα από την έννοια της ομάδας.
  Δεκάδες είναι τα δημοσιεύματα που αναφέρονται στο εν λόγω δίκτυο στο Βόλο ως μια πόλη που ‘εγκατέλειψε το ευρώ’, που βρήκε ‘μια λύση στην κρίση’ και το φωτογραφίζουν ως μια όαση ελπίδας και έμπρακτης βοήθειας σε μια χρονική περίοδο που χαρακτηρίζεται από την οικονομική ύφεση, την ανεργία και τις δύσκολες συνθήκες διαβίωσης. Ωστόσο, μεταξύ του  αυτοπροσδιορισμού  και  της μηντιακής αναπαράστασης  υπάρχει σημαντική απόκλιση, καθώς οι ιδρυτές μιλούν για ένα εγχείρημα που δημιουργήθηκε πριν τα σημάδια της κρίσης γίνουν εμφανή στην Ελλάδα και επενδύθηκε με μια σειρά από κοινωνικές και ηθικές αξίες. Καθώς, όμως, η οικονομική κρίση δεν άφησε ανέπαφη καμία πτυχή της ελληνικής κοινωνίας, έτσι και στο δίκτυο αυτό με την εμφάνιση της αυξήθηκαν κατακόρυφα τα μέλη του αλλά και η δημοσιότητά του. Η ανακοίνωση αυτή, που προκύπτει από εθνογραφική επιτόπια έρευνα για την πτυχιακή εργασία στο τμήμα ΙΑΚΑ του ΠΘ, θα επικεντρωθεί στην οπτική μελών του δικτύου ότι το Δίκτυο Ανταλλαγών και Αλληλεγγύης Μαγνησίας  μάλλον προσαρμόστηκε στις ανάγκες της εποχής, παρά δημιουργήθηκε για να τις καλύψει.

This paper will begin by setting the context of today with respect to the economy. I will then outline some of what I see as fundamental problems in dominant paradigm economics. It will discuss some of the more troubling aspects of the global monetary and financial systems. Entering into this discussion are issues of political, social, ecological, and moral concern. My goal here is for balance; if I critique the dominant system, I must also be prepared to propose a constructive alternative. This alternative -- community currencies -- is but one of many strategies for sustainable community economic development.

This paper investigates whether the external finance premium (EFP)2 is capable of predicting economic activity. Our sample is an aggregate quarterly dataset that spans from 1960 – 2008. Our geographical area investigated is a multitude of countries i.e. USA, UK, Japan, Australia, Germany, Italy, Brazil and India. Our model is the Markov Switching Regime Chain multiple regression model. The model allows capturing for non- linearity in the relationship between external finance premium (EFP) and GDP (economic activity). Our results show the EFP is indeed an important indicator of macro- economic policies such as inflation, monetary policy as well as economic activity for most of the countries studied. This is more supporting evidence for the already existing evidence Bernanke and Gertler (2000), Ferre de Graeve (2007) among others.

Households in India prefer physical assets over financial assets due to varying reasons such as lack of financial inclusion, cultural motives to hedging inflation. The objective of the paper is to analyse the regional disparity as well as sectoral disparity of gold consumption in India using NSSO Consumer Expenditure Surveys 52, 68 and 72 rounds. NSSO unit level analysis was done using SPSS software and statistical tools such as ANOVA, post-hoc Tamhane test and independent t-tests were used to highlight the disparities.

The highest spending on durable goods in India found to be for residential buildings and land cost of maintenance in 52nd and 72 rounds.  Gold was the second most consumption expenditure item of households for the year 2011 and third important item in 1995 and 2014. The rural household consumption expenditure on durable goods was largely skewed among few items such as residential building and land maintenance, transport equipments and gold ornaments. While, Urban household expenditure was spread over larger items such as transport equipments, building and land maintenance, gold ornaments, household appliances, personal goods and recreation goods.

The mean expenditure on gold was highest in Kerala among the southern states for all the selected NSS rounds. This was followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The percentage spending on gold was also highest in Kerala, for NSS rounds 52 and 68. Among the north Indian states, the percentage share of gold in durable goods was highest in Maharashtra followed by Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The mean expenditure found to be highest in Rajasthan, followed by Punjab, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana.
The states having highest per capita expenditure on gold in 2014 were Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and the states with low per capita gold consumption in 2014 were Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. The per capita gold consumption in Kerala was Rs.1269 followed by Rs.592 in Tamil Nadu and Rs.415 in Andhra Pradesh during 2014. But it was only Rs.58 in Madhya Pradesh and Rs.70 in Bihar. The aggregate gold consumption expenditure in Kerala was Rs.4475 crores as compared to Rs.438 crores in Madhya Pradesh for the year 2014. The CAGR of aggregate expenditure found to be highest among Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat respectively 0.33, 0.30 and 0.28 for 1995 to 2014 period.
Independent t test shows that there exists significant difference in mean spending of rural and urban households on gold consumption. On an average, rural households spend about Rs.24868 and urban households spend Rs.27750 annually on gold consumption. Though the percentage share on gold may be higher among rural households but the absolute the mean spending value of gold was higher among urban households than in rural households. The post-hoc Tamhane test results shows that agricultural households spent lower expenditure on gold as compared to other category households in rural India. It spent Rs.5693 lower than households engaged as casual labours in non-agricultural sector, and Rs.4100 lower than self-employed households in non-agricultural sector. Also, the self employed households in urban India relied more on gold than other category households.
Keywords: Gold Demand, Consumer Demand, National Sample Survey, ANOVA Post hoc Analysis

The potential of time currencies to serve as a tool of social change remains relatively unexplored, and yet these alternative currencies make it possible to combine into a single mechanism several different social and environmental goals: reducing work hours, increasing civic engagement in public affairs, lowering public debt, and redistributing wealth.

"Could either monetary policy or financial prudential regulation be relied on individually to mitigate asset price cycles or their effects? If both ways are effective, monetary policy and prudential regulation could then be considered “substitutes,” in
the sense that the individual use of either instrument leads to a reduction in the volatility of both corresponding targets. This
note, however, argues in favor of complementarity—rather than substitution—in the use of monetary and macroprudential policies: the combined (articulate) use of both policies tends to be more effective than a standalone implementation of either."

The study investigated the effect of cooperative farmers’ insurance premium on the growth of agricultural gross domestic product in Nigeria. The objective of the study was to ascertain the effect of cooperative farmers’ insurance premium on the economic growth of agricultural sector. Secondary data was sourced and used for the study.  The study adopted ex-post facto research in which secondary data obtained from the Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) Headquarters, Abuja and Statistical bulletins of Central Bank of Nigeria, from 1989 to 2015 were used for analysis. Data for the study were analyzed using descriptive statistics, graphs, ordinary least square, panel unit root analysis, pairwise granger causality test and co-integration. Result showed that total cooperative farmers’ insurance premium had positive insignificant effect on the growth of agricultural gross domestic product in Nigeria, with co-efficient value of 0.028603, t-value of 0.140011 and p-value of 0.8898. The study concluded that in order to record positive significant effect on Nigeria’s agricultural gross domestic product consistently over a long period of time, sufficient funds as agricultural loans should be delivered to cooperative farmers to make agricultural produce and products available, accessible and affordable especially at this period of economic recession and also an increase in the coverage of insurance to Nigeria’s cooperative farmers in order to attract more premiums to government by bringing into the insurance sector larger number of cooperative farmers through credit delivery to service their agricultural businesses. The study advised NAIC to offer agricultural insurance to cooperative farmers at a reduced and subsidized rate of 25%, instead of the 50% premium they currently pay.

Key words: insurance premium, agricultural GDP, Nigeria.

The 2015 Special Issue of The International journal of Community Currency Research is available online! The Academia.edu format does not permit me to announce the full issue, which can be found here http://ijccr.net/2015/03/12/2015-special-issue-multiple-moneys-and-development/

The credit union movement has experienced rapid growth across the United States in recent years. After the financial crisis of 2007-2008, US credit unions emerged more resolutely as trusted financial partners, able to maintain lending during the credit crunch and offering better loan and deposit rates, greater investment security and superior customer service. , ,  Credit unions are known for their focus on consumer banking. Yet this has obscured their changing relationship with businesses.

This paper seeks to discover the state of US credit union capabilities with respect to business banking services. After creating a classification for the level of US credit union business banking capabilities, we conducted informal, semi-structured interviews with a small sample of key stakeholders from the US credit union industry in order to provide insights into the nature of existing US credit union business banking capabilities.

Since US credit unions have been shown to provide direct economic benefits from consumer banking,  along with a positive track record for small businesses,  we are interested in credit unions’ potential to serve larger businesses beyond the provision of loans. Given that businesses have higher average deposits than consumers,  there is potential for shifting significant resources from banks to credit unions.

Our findings suggest that while many US credit unions offer Basic Business Services, and some US credit unions offer Semi-comprehensive Business Services, no US credit union offers Comprehensive Business Services. We discovered three main factors holding back the development of these commercial capabilities: mission constraints; lack of apparent business demand; and lack of a strong business case according to a cost-benefit risk analysis. These factors appear to reinforce each other in a vicious cycle.

However, these factors may also present points of leverage for those seeking to expand business service capabilities within the US credit union system. For example, if weak business demand stems from an absence of targeted marketing to the private sector, a campaign to document pledged allegiance could reverse this phenomena. Indeed, we see strategic interventions at one of the three points offering the ability to shift the system from a vicious cycle to a virtuous one.

Digital age is not new or alien to the financial services industry. When the new breakthroughs of information and communication technology (ICT) hit the world in early 1960s, it was the financial services industry that embraced them before any other industry. It was done as a necessity rather than as a passion or fashion. The necessity arose from having to cope with the strict competition that engulfed financial services institutions cutting into the thin profit margins and thereby threatening their long run survival. At the same time, objectives like inclusive financing needed them to have a wider outreach without increasing costs. The industry could not do so relying on the prevailing production model. That model had been based on having a larger geographical coverage with a wide branch network. However, such a branch network required these institutions to employ more people at increasing costs. Thus, the embracing of ICT breakthroughs helped the industry to cut costs, provide better and more efficient services to customers and have a wider outreach without increasing costs. Empirical studies have found that application of ICT have had a positive impact on banks' profitability 1. The improvement in profitability should come from the benefits which the customers, banks and employees should receive from the application of ICT as an integral part of the operation of banks 2. The McKinsey Global Institute, in a report published in September 2016, has highlighted that digital finance could serve the down-trodden in society by providing access to credit and savings products 3. Thus, digital technology is not only for the higher ups in the social stratum; it is for all, helping societies make their financial services inclusive. Sri Lankan banks have embraced advancing ICT after liberalisation of the business in 1977 After the liberalisation of the banking system in 1977, banks in Sri Lanka too embraced digital technology, albeit in a slower pace. It is the foreign banks which provided the digital services to their customers in the initial stage. They were soon followed by private commercial banks which too invested heavily in ICT infrastructure as well as in ICT based human capital. The state banks were the last to enter the field but managed to accomplish the task within a few years. As a result, all commercial banks in Sri Lanka today are unibanks providing services to their customers from any of their branches located throughout the country and offering a gamut of internet banking services to them from any part of the world. Starting from basic automated teller machines or ATMs which functioned as cash dispensers and cash deposit accepting devices, Sri Lanka's ICT based banking is now providing to their customers all the advanced services which banks in the developed world are providing to their customers. Yet, ICT does not stay in a single place and is subject to constant evolution and improvement. In this sense, banks are lagging behind in the application of ICT compared to other industries like healthcare services or defence services. The challenge for banks today is to narrow this gap by catching up with other fast ICT users.

1 Collaborative business models supported by local monetary systems are appearing worldwide. Can this be a way out of the various current crises? Is it just a short-lived gadget or could it lead to a radically new economic system? This article looks at these questions from a system dynamics approach. 2 First it sketches the scope of this evolution. Next we study its potential for the resilience of the global economic and political system. Finally we look at what may facilitate or block its breakthrough.

The French (and Latin Monetary Union) Bimetallism; the British (and World) Gold Standard; the Bank of England (and other countries) banknotes; the 19th Century project of Word Currency (1 Gold Sovereign/1 Pound Sterling = 25 French Francs = 5 US Dollars). // El bimetal·lisme francés (i de la Unió Monetària Llatina) confrontat al patró or d'encuny britànic; els bitllets del banc d'Anglaterra (i d'altres països) convertibles en or; la pervivència del patró argent; els països amb moneda fiduciària; el projecte (iniciat el 1867) de moneda universal, fonamentat en l'anivellament del contingut en or fi de la moneda d'un sobirà  (amb valor d'una lliura esterlina), de la peça de 25 francs francesos (mai encunyada, però equivalent a dues peces: 20 i 5 francs), i de la moneda de 5 dòlars (o mitja àguila) dels Estats Units.

The article describes the invoice currency choice in the Brazilian foreign trade, focusing on the use of the Brazilian real (BRL). The Ministry of Foreign Trade (MDIC) database is used for the first time for this purpose. Even with the US dollar being far more used in Brazil than in other countries, the BRL use for denominating trade has had exceptional growth. We categorically move away from the idea that the BRL is not used in Brazilian international trade. Brazilian imports show a strong tendency toward being more invoiced in noninternational currencies than exports. Brazilian trade evidence does not confirm some previous international findings. Although they are homogenous products, sugar and tobacco are the two main exports denominated in BRL. BRL use as invoice currency and as payment currency does not match.