Money, cards and ATMs in Madagascar

The ariary is one-way

• You may not export ariary. That is Global Affairs Canada's flat statement.
• You may bring in up to 400,000 ariary, which the FCDO publishes as a hard cap. So the currency is not impossible to obtain in advance, it is capped going in and blocked going out.
• The practical consequence is at the end, not the start. Change what you need, in stages, and do not build up a float you will be carrying to the airport.
• There is a shortage of foreign currency in Madagascar, and some banks will not reconvert local currency into hard currency. Assume the ariary you hold on the last day is ariary you will spend.

Cash, and what it buys

• Madagascar has a cash-based economy. Cash withdrawals are possible from a limited number of ATMs in Antananarivo, and thinner elsewhere.
• Some credit cards are accepted at major hotels, some restaurants and some shops. That is the ceiling, not the norm.
• Euros are widely accepted. US dollars are sometimes accepted in Antananarivo, the major cities and tourist areas.
• By decree, prices, contracts, invoices and settlement on Malagasy territory are in ariary (Decree 2007-276 of 11 April 2007). The airside duty-free zone is the published exception, and there it is foreign currency only.
• Customs duty on arrival can be paid by cash, card or mobile money, which is the one counter that takes plastic reliably.

The cash declaration threshold, on which nobody agrees

Three official sources, three numbers, all live on 11 September 2026:

• Declare it, at the lowest of the three. The declaration is free, it produces a certified document, and without that document your money can be seized when you leave. There is no cost to over-declaring and a real one to guessing.
• Do it at the customs office, Door 87, Terminal C.

Changing money legally

• Buying foreign banknotes from anyone other than a bank or a licensed bureau de change is prohibited. The Treasury flyer says so directly. Street changers are not a grey area here.
• A bank or bureau issues an attestation de change. Keep it.
• On the way out, above 1,000 euros you must show customs that certificate of exchange, and above 10,000 euros the money has to move by bank transaction rather than in your bag.

What you may carry through customs

• Duty free on arrival: 2 litres of spirits and 2 bottles of wine for over-18s, 200 cigarettes or 100 cigarillos or 50 cigars or 250 g of tobacco, 2 x 100 ml of perfume, and other new personal goods up to a total value of 1,000 euros.
• Anything above that is declared, and duty is calculated at the desk. More than three large suitcases puts you in the yellow channel by itself.