Myanmar’s military government plans to establish a digital currency to support domestic payments and boost the economy within the year and is assessing how to move forward, a Burmese State Administration Council spokesman said.
“We are undecided whether we should do it as a joint venture with local companies or by the government alone,” said Major General Zaw Min Tun, who is deputy information minister in the junta that toppled the civilian government a year ago. “A digital currency will help improve financial activities in Myanmar.”
The World Bank estimates that Myanmar’s economy shrank 18 percent in the fiscal year ended in September last year, and forecasts growth of just 1 percent through September.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Myanmar’s economy could have been 30 percent larger without the twin blows of the COVID-19 pandemic and the coup, the international lender said in a report last week.
News of the State Administration Council’s proposal came two months after a group led by supporters of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi recognized tether as an “official currency” for use in a fundraising campaign that seeks to topple the military regime.
Aung San Suu Kyi is serving a jail sentence for a slew of charges.
Central banks have been working for years to develop digital currencies, with some planning to deploy them for retail transactions and others opting to restrict them to interbank use. China, whose digital yuan project is among the most advanced, has been developing it since at least 2014.
“We think the country is not in the best position to be able to pursue something like this,” World Bank senior economist for Myanmar Kim Edwards told a news conference last week.
Myanmar would need a good regulatory structure and high capacity within the administration to make it happen, he added.
Burmese central bank currency-management director-general Win Myint said that “at this point, we are still learning about digital currencies and having discussions. We need to consider both pros and cons.”
Myanmar is not the only ailing economy mulling crypto projects. The Venezuelan National Assembly last month accepted for consideration a bill to establish provisions for digital-currency transactions.
Inflation in bolivars has slowed to an annual pace of 53 percent in the past three months, down from well north of 1,000 percent in the past few years, the Bloomberg index showed.
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