In March 1999 the government led by Prime Minister Guilherme da Costa recommitted itself to economic stability, the alleviation of poverty, and good governance. That same month an inquiry revealed that leading figures in the central bank had issued $500 million worth of counterfeit treasury bonds and cashed them overseas. The opposition called for the prosecution of the former governor of the bank, but his close relations with Pres. Miguel Trovoada made this unlikely. One of the aims of economic policy was to reduce inflation, running at over 20% in early 1999.

In November 1998 the National Assembly approved, over French opposition, the concession that had been granted in 1997 to the West African Development Corporation for the establishment of the first free-trade zone in the Gulf of Guinea. The concession involved building on Príncipe a new deepwater port for duty-free trading and offshore banking. Critics said it should be on São Tomé, the larger of the two islands, with 20 times the population of Príncipe, and they were concerned about the environmental impact as well as the economic viability of the scheme.

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