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Commodity exports and aid inflows raise demand for local currencies, making them stronger.
大宗商品出口和援助流入增加了對本幣的需求，使本幣更加強勢。
Governments fear depreciation because they depend on imported capital to finance infrastructure projects;
各國政府擔心貨幣貶值，因為他們依賴進口資本為基礎設施項目融資；
a weak currency forces them to raise more revenue to pay back foreign debts.
疲軟的貨幣迫使他們籌集更多的收入來償還外債。
Depreciation also pushes up the cost of imported goods, including food, medicine and fuel.
貶值還推高了進口商品的成本，包括食品、藥品和燃料。
Those are mostly consumed by city folk, who are more prone to protest than those in the countryside.
這些都是城市居民消費的，他們比住在鄉下的人更傾向于抗議。
Inflation hits industry, too.
通貨膨脹也打擊了工業。
Nigerian firms buy much of their machinery and inputs from abroad and so are hurt by higher import prices,
尼日利亞公司從國外購買大量的機械設備和原材料，因此受到進口價格上漲的影響，
says Segun Ajayi-Kadir, the director-general of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria.
尼日利亞制造商協會的總干事Segun Ajayi-Kadir說到。
Ethiopian factories import about half of their raw materials. Garment firms ship in fabric; shoemakers, leather.
埃塞俄比亞的工廠大約一半的原材料是進口的。服裝公司從海外采購織物；制鞋廠采購皮革。
Left unchecked, inflation erodes any boost to exports. Consider a 10% depreciation in the "nominal" exchange rate—
如果不加以抑制，通脹就會侵蝕對出口的提振。考慮在“名義”匯率上貶值10%——
that is, the rate advertised in newspapers or at a bureau de change.
即新聞刊登的或外幣兌換所的匯率。
If domestic prices also rise by about 10% then there is no change in the "real" exchange rate,
如果國內價格也上漲約10%，那么衡量國內和
which measures relative prices of domestic and foreign goods, and that is what counts.
國外商品相對價格的“實際”匯率就沒有變化，這才是關鍵。
In practice prices rarely jump that much: in 2012 IMF researchers estimated that in sub-Saharan Africa
實際上，價格基本不會上漲那么多：2012年，IMF研究人員估計，在撒哈拉以南的非洲，
a 10% depreciation typically results in domestic price rises of only 4%. But to maintain an undervalued real exchange rate,
貶值10%通常只會導致國內價格上漲4%。但是為了維持低估的實際匯率，
governments would have to limit inflation by containing local demand, for example by trimming public spending,
各國政府將不得不通過抑制國內需求來抑制通脹，比如通過削減公共開支，
notes Abebe Aemro Selassie, the director of the IMF's Africa department.
IMF非洲部主管Abebe Aemro Selassie指出。
As this is difficult, countries do not typically contemplate strategic undervaluation.
由于戰略性低估很困難，所以各國通常不會考慮。
Perhaps this is not a surprise. Much like tackling corruption or fixing the myriad other problems African economies face,
或許這并不令人意外。就像解決腐敗問題或解決非洲經濟體面臨的無數其他問題一樣，
strategic undervaluation is hard to pull off. It imposes real wage cuts on the workforce, notes Christopher Adam of Oxford University,
戰略性低估很難實現。牛津大學的克里斯多夫·亞當指出，它對勞動力進行了實際的工資削減，
so "you're imposing the cost on current workers and consumers for the benefit of future generations."
因此“你就把成本強加給了現在的工人和消費者，以造福未來幾代人。”
No wonder politicians prefer their exchange rates strong.
難怪政客們更喜歡強勁的匯率。
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