Dollarization

英文名稱：Dollarization 中文名稱：美元化
指一個經濟體以美元取代本土貨幣的過程。美元化可以是非官方的，即不是政府強制要求的，而是人們自發的普遍使用美元；也可以是半官方的，在這樣的國家，美元是合法的，但是相對本國貨幣來說只扮演次要角色；還可以是官方的，即該國家只使用美元，而停止發行本國貨幣。

A situation where the citizens of a country officially or unofficially use a foreign country's currency as legal tender for conducting transactions. The main reason for dollarization is because of greater stability in the value of the foreign currency over domestic currency. The downside of dollarization is that the country gives up its right to influence its own monetary policy by adjusting the money supply. 

For example, the citizens of a country with an economy undergoing rampant inflation may choose to use a historically stable currency (like the U.S. dollar) to conduct day-to-day transactions, because inflation will cause their domestic currency to have reduced buying power in a relatively short amount of time. Dollarization does not always involve the U.S. dollar as the adopted foreign currency. The euro has also been adopted by non-EU members as its domestic currency.