Historical Sketch

Christopher Columbus sighted the Guyana coast on his third voyage of 1498. The first Europeans to set claims were Dutch in the early 17th century. The territory was colonized from west to east, thus forming five distinct colonies of Pomeroon, Essequibo, Demerara, Berbice and Suriname. In 1682, all territories were sold to the Dutch West India Company, which established the Berbice and Suriname Companies to administer the two easternmost territories. In the early 1780s, Great Britain began attacking the Dutch possessions. After several changes of ownership, the four western territories changed hand, with only Suriname remaining as Dutch possession. The partition was finally agreed on in 1815. Until 1848, Netherlands Guyana was administered together with Curaçao, afterwards the two colonies were separated. After the Second World War, Guyana was transformed into an overseas territory and regained its old name, and in 1975, it attained independence as Republic of Suriname.

Monetary History Overview

The monetary situation in the five Dutch possessions was not regulated, and went into complete disarray until the time of the partition. Payment transactions were made in unbacked paper money, mostly issued by private individuals. For want of paper, playcards were frequently used to be stamped and inscribed for use as money. In 1826, Dutch accounting was officially introduced in Suriname. As the money from the Netherlands remained scarce, local paper money circulated, which after 1865 was issued by the Bank of Suriname. The Surinamese Guilder was at par with the metropolitan currency, convertibility was, however, limited. During the German occupation of the Netherlands, the West Indies remained under the rule of the exile government. In 1940, the local and metropolitan currencies were decoupled, and the Surinamese Guilder got pegged to the US Dollar. The devaluation of the Netherlands currency after the Second World War was not followed in the West Indies. The US Dollar peg remained unchanged until 1971 when it got adapted slightly to partly compensate for the Dollar devaluation. In 1975, Suriname attained independence. In the 1980s, the Guilder became increasingly inconvertible, and in June 1993 finally, the official rate was abandoned. The switch to the floating effective rate corresponded to a 96% devaluation. The Guilder strongly depreciated during the 1990s and early 2000s. In January 2004, a currency reform was carried out. Three zeros were cut, and the Surinamese Dollar became the new unit. The peg to the US Dollar was reinstated and brought a longer period of currency stability. In the 2011, a first devaluation was done, and the rate got floated in March 2016. After close to 50% of the currency value had gone, the peg to the US currency got reintroduced.

Suriname joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 27.04.1978.

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