 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(April 2012) |
| Sistema Unitario de Compensación Regional de Pagos (Spanish) | |
|---|---|
| ISO 4217 | |
| Code | XSU (numeric: 994) |
| Unit | |
| Unit | sucre |
| Symbol | XSU or sucre |
| Issuance | |
| Central bank | Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) |
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TheSUCRE ([ˈsukɾe];Spanish:Sistema Unitario de Compensación Regional, "Unified System for Regional Compensation") was a regionalcurrency proposed for commercial exchanges between members of the regional trade blocBolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), which was created as an alternative to theFree Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). The SUCRE was intended to replace theUS dollar as amedium of exchange.
The SUCRE was first used as a virtual currency in 2010 in two transactions betweenEcuador andVenezuela.[1] International trade between member states in SUCRE reached its maximum in 2012 with 2,646 transactions worth almost 1,066 million US dollars. In each following year trade in SUCRE shrank. In 2015 there were 752 transactions worth around 345 million dollars.[2]
The treaty explicitly limited the backing assets of the basket of currencies to financial securities denominated in the respective currencies of the member states. Prohibition of alternative forms of currency backing (such ascommodity backing) presented an inequity for Ecuador that, alone in the group, does not have its own national currency (ituses the US dollar).[citation needed]
In the case of ALBA membersDominica,Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, andAntigua and Barbuda, the new currency posed a dilemma as they are already a member of theEastern Caribbean Currency Union and use theEast Caribbean dollar,[3] although none of them had agreed to the treaty establishing the SUCRE and the regional payments clearinghouse.[4]
The SUCRE is named afterAntonio José de Sucre, a leading figure inLatin America's independence struggle. Agreement[5] in general terms for the currency was declared in 2009. The formal treaty[4] establishing the regional payments clearinghouse was signed by the six Latin American presidents inCochabamba,Bolivia, on October 17, 2009. (The former currency ofEcuador, one of the SUCRE's users, was also called thesucre, but was abandoned and replaced by theUS dollar after the economic crisis in 1999).
This currency has codeXSU inISO 4217 standard currency list.ISO 4217 Standard definition:
In 2013Uruguay joined the currency.[6]
In 2018, the government of Venezuela proposed using thePetro, instead, for trade within ALBA.[7][8]
