Although dollarization has been presented many times as the magic formula to end all the ills of an economy in crisis, the truth is that economists recognize that it has advantages and disadvantages.
And that is not the great recipe to save all countries in crisis.
With dollarization you can have mediocre growth or phenomenal growth, because dollarization is not the only factor that determines it. It is not a panacea, Gabriela Calderón, associate economist at the Cato Institute, in Washington D.C., tells BBC Mundo.
In those countries where the local currency has devalued and inflation has risen to levels that are difficult to control, the adoption of the dollar sounds like stability, mainly because it is the international reference currency and the refuge of investors when a crisis hits.
But in the long term it can have negative effects, as explained in a dialogue with BBC Mundo by the economist Pablo Dávalos, director of the Ecuadorian Alternative and Heterodox Economy Forum study center and professor at the Simón Bolívar Andean University.
Although there are three officially dollarized economies, countries such as Venezuela and Argentina have gone through a process known as "spontaneous dollarization", where the greenback is, in practice, much more reliable and appreciated by the population than the currency. local.
In particular, I believe that when a country, for example, like Venezuela, the country where I live, is implementing dollarization as a proper occupation of the people since this currency is more appreciated by the people than the local currency, and I saw it with my eyes and I felt it That has stabilized what is inflation and product speculation in some way has slowed all this to be at a more stable level of stability ...