Download or read book Regional Integration in West Africa written by Eswar Prasad and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2021-07-13 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " Assessing the potential benefits and risks of a currency union Leaders of the fifteen-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have set a goal of achieving a monetary and currency union by late 2020. Although some progress has been made toward achieving this ambitious goal, major challenges remain if the region is to realize the necessary macroeconomic convergence and establish the required institutional framework in a relatively short period of time. The proposed union offers many potential benefits, especially for countries with historically high inflation rates and weak central banks. But, as implementation of the euro over the past two decades has shown, folding multiple currencies, representing disparate economies, into a common union comes with significant costs, along with operational challenges and transitional risks. All these potential negatives must be considered carefully by ECOWAS leaders seeking tomeet a self-imposed deadline. This book, by two leading experts on economics and Africa, makes a significant analytical contribution to the debates now under way about how ECOWAS could achieve and manage its currency union, andthe ramifications for the African continent. "
Download or read book Currency Union for West Africa written by PhD Cham, Tamsir and published by LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2011-02 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text analyses the benefits and costs of currency unions, focusing on the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ). Openness, co-movement, and labor mobility are explored for each country using econometric techniques to determine the optimum currency area (OCA) criteria. Analysis of the data reveals that none of the countries under consideration satisfies all of the convergence and OCA criteria. The study also relies on the gravity model to measure the effect of currency union on trade, income, and welfare. The principal findings are that WAMZ will increase trade, income, and welfare. The cost of WAMZ is examined using real exchange rate misalignment. The results reveal that misalignment has increased substantially across the zone. The study concludes that, despite the obvious benefits of the monetary union, these countries face significant challenges before the zone can become a full-fledged monetary union. To increase the effectiveness of WAMZ, each country must demonstrate the political will to implement serious reforms to improve economic fundamentals.
Download or read book How Feasible is the West African Eco Currency Union A New Approach written by William Miles and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A recent proposal to expand the CFA Franc zone in West Africa would create a currency union that, in terms of population, would rival the Euro. This new currency union would include Nigeria, which would have the largest GDP, and which is also, unlike most other current and proposed members, heavily dependent on oil exports. Synchronization of business cycles across the nations of this new monetary union would be important in assuring its feasibility. In this paper, we apply a recently developed set of tools and find, first, that by some salient measures, the proposed nations in this union exhibit less business cycle coherence than those of the euro zone prior to its launch. Secondly, Nigeria seems especially ill-suited for this new currency. Finally, it does not appear, based on the experience of several nations, that the act of joining the currency union increases business cycle synchronization, contrary to the “Endogenous Optimal Currency Area” hypothesis.
Download or read book Monetary Union in West Africa written by Xavier Debrun and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We develop a multicountry model in which governments aim at excessive spending in order to serve the narrow interests of the group in power. This puts pressure on the monetary authorities to extract seigniorage, and thus affects the incentives countries would have to participate in a monetary union. This feature, ignored by the monetary union literature for Europe, is potentially important in Africa. We calibrate the model to data for West Africa and use it to assess proposed ECOWAS monetary unions. We conclude that monetary union with Nigeria would not be in the interests of other ECOWAS countries, unless it were accompanied by effective discipline over Nigeria's fiscal policies.
Download or read book The Monetary Geography of Africa written by Paul R. Masson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004-11-30 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa is working toward the goal of creating a common currency that would serve as a symbol of African unity. The advantages of a common currency include lower transaction costs, increased stability, and greater insulation of central banks from pressures to provide monetary financing. Disadvantages relate to asymmetries among countries, especially in their terms of trade and in the degree of fiscal discipline. More disciplined countries will not want to form a union with countries whose excessive spending puts upward pressure on the central bank's monetary expansion. In T he Monetary Geography of Africa, Paul Masson and Catherine Pattillo review the history of monetary arrangements on the continent and analyze the current situation and prospects for further integration. They apply lessons from both experience and theory that lead to a number of conclusions. To begin with, West Africa faces a major problem because Nigeria has both asymmetric terms of trade—it is a large oil exporter while its potential partners are oil importers—and most important, large fiscal imbalances. Secondly, a monetary union among all eastern or southern African countries seems infeasible at this stage, since a number of countries suffer from the effects of civil conflicts and drought and are far from achieving the macroeconomic stability of South Africa. Lastly, the plan by Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to create a common currency seems to be generally compatible with other initiatives that could contribute to greater regional solidarity. However, economic gains would likely favor Kenya, which, unlike the other two countries, has substantial exports to its neighbors, and this may constrain the political will needed to proceed. A more promising strategy for monetary integration would be to build on existing monetary unions—the CFA franc zone in western and central Africa and the Common Monetary Area in southern Africa. Masson and Pattillo argue that the goal of a creating a s
Download or read book West African Currency Union written by and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the inception of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 1975, the founding members have aimed to introduce a single regional currency as a mechanism to achieve continued economic integration, sustainable economic expansion and poverty reduction. This paper empirically assesses the feasibility of the proposed West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) as an optimum currency area by considering potential benefits and costs of the union using the Gravity Model of Trade and Vector Autoregression (VAR) analysis respectively. To perform the assessment, I first employ the Gravity Model of Trade to analyze the trade-creating benefits of adopting a common currency by evaluating the effect of currency risk on bilateral trade flows. I find that currency risk is not a significant trade barrier. Then, I perform a VAR analysis to understand the symmetry of shock responses across the proposed union and discover that both supply and demand shocks are generally asymmetric. This finding indicates that the retention of monetary policy autonomy by member countries will be more beneficial than joining the proposed currency union. The results of both analyses indicate that the proposed monetary zone is not an optimal currency area. Finally, I employ a K-means clustering algorithm to derive a statistically driven cluster of countries best suited to form an optimal currency area in West Africa and find three optimal clusters.
Download or read book West African Economic and Monetary Union written by International Monetary Fund. African Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2024-04-17 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The WAEMU has seen strong growth and rising living standards over the past decade. Economic growth averaged 5.4 percent in 2013-2019 and 5.8 percent in 2021-2023. Policy efforts from regional and national authorities have cushioned the impact of several external and internal shocks, prompting a solid economic recovery since the COVID-19 pandemic, despite increasing security issues. Meanwhile, the Human Development Index has increased from 0.44 in 2013 to 0.48 in 2021.
Download or read book Africa s Last Colonial Currency written by Fanny Pigeaud and published by Pluto Press (UK). This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the CFA Franc enabled France to continue its colonies in Africa.
Download or read book History of the West African Monetary Union From the origins to 1958 written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Currency Convertibility in the Economic Community of West African States written by Mr.Saleh M. Nsouli and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1982-08-16 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the principal aims of the effort to integrate the economies of the 16 member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is to expand intra-Community trade. This objective is to be achieved partly through the elimination of quantitive and other restrictions on trade.
Download or read book The CFA Franc Zone written by Ali Zafar and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an empirical analysis of economic and political structures impacting the CFA franc zone. Concise and practical chapters explore the history of the CFA franc zone, challenges to development, geopolitical issues, the importance of flexible exchanges rates, growth trends, and the impact of the Covid crisis. Policy reform is examined to detail economic approaches that could reduce poverty and increase the quality of life within the area. This book aims to present a macroeconomic and exchange rate framework to promote development and post-Covid recovery within the CFA franc zone. It will be of interest to students, researchers, and policymakers involved in African economics, the political economy, and development economics.
Download or read book West African Economic and Monetary Union written by Patrick A. Imam and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The financial system in the WAEMU remains largely bank-based. The banking sector comprises 106 banks and 13 financial institutions, which together hold more than 90 percent of the financial system’s assets (about 54 percent of GDP at end-2011). Five banks account for 50 percent of banking assets. The ownership structure of the sector is changing fast, with the rapid rise of foreign-owned (pan-African) banks. This contributes to higher competition but also rising heterogeneity in the banking system, with large and profitable cross-country groups competing with often weaker country-based (and sometime government-owned) banks. Nonbank financial institutions are developing quickly, notably insurance companies, but remain overall small. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the banking system.
Download or read book The West African Manilla Currency written by Rolf Denk and published by tredition. This book was released on 2021-03-17 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prof . Dr Rolf Denk, born in Düsseldorf in 1935, worked as a dermatologist in the Mainz University Hospital and afterwards in his own specialist practice in Rüsselsheim. In 1978 he and other collectors were among the founders of the European Union to Search for, Collect, and Preserve Primitive and Curious Money (EUCOPRIMO). In 1981 he took over the editing of the journal Der Primitivgeldsammler. After completing his medical career, he devoted himself more to the research of early indigenous means of payment. 110 own publications have appeared on this topic. In 2017 he published the monograph "Das Manillen-Geld West Afrikas" of which he now presents a revised and extended edition in English. The currency manillas discussed in this book are open metal rings that were used by Europeans as means of payment in trade with the local population from the mid-15th to mid-20th century in various areas of the West Coast of Africa. All currency manillas were made in Europe and are not indigenous products. Therefore is not correct and misleading to designate the foot, arm and neck rings produced in the country itself as manillas. The early Portuguese manillas, also called tacoais, were largely produced according to Portuguese specifications in Flanders and Germany. They are heavier and larger than the so-called Birmingham manillas, which originated in England and were mainly exported to southern Nigeria, where they were in circulation as market money with the Igbo and Ibibo. An intermediate position in terms of shape, weight and metal composition is occupied by the popo manillas, probably produced in England and France and mainly used in the Ivory Coast. On the basis of extensive literature research, an attempt is made to obtain more precise data on the production, use and typification of the different currency manillas and to show their clear distinction from the indigenous metal rings.
Download or read book The Case of Monetary Union in West Africa Would One Currency Fit All An Empirical Investigation of the Feasibility of the Proposed Common Currency for the ECOWAS written by Moritz Becker and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, there has been a notable increase in the efforts to establish a monetary union within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Initially scheduled for implementing a common currency in 2003, ECOWAS had agreed to introduce a common currency called the Eco by 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of the Eco currency was postponed until 2027. This study adds to the existing research on the feasibility of the Eco as a common currency for ECOWAS. It adopts the framework proposed by Bayoumi and Eichengreen (1997) to operationalize the Optimal Currency Area (OCA) theory. Using OLS estimation, the study models the relationship between OCA conditions and the bilateral nominal exchange rate volatility (BNER) among West African countries from 2000 to 2021. The study's findings indicate that the Eco could be considered feasible for the countries within the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. However, Ghana and especially Nigeria do not meet the OCA conditions to the same extent as the other countries. Consequently, an immediate monetary union encompassing all ECOWAS member countries may not be feasible. Nevertheless, the study's policy implications strongly advocate for a gradual integration approach, similar to the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU).
Download or read book West African Economic and Monetary Union WAEMU written by International Monetary Fund. African Dept. and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2018-04-25 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) member countries have experienced growth acceleration since 2012. Relative to an earlier reference period in the 1990s, the WAEMU’s recent strong growth has coincided with an increase in macroeconomic stability and investment, improvement in political institutions, improvement in the terms of trade, and increase in productivity.
Download or read book Impact of a Monetary Union on Trade in the West Africa Monetarty Zone written by Oyinlola Morounfoluwa Esan and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ABSTRACT : Eco has been proposed as a common currency for the West African Monetary Zone to enable a better trade for member countries. A group of five out of the fifteen Western African countries are to begin to use the Eco in 2009 which was decided by the West African Monetary Institute based in Accra, Ghana. This is intended to be the forerunner of a common central bank. Gravity-model as a method has been employed to estimate the impact of Eco on trade using historical statistics of member countries. Factors said to affect trade such as GDP, language, distance and more are also used independently to determine the effect they have on trade. The study also analysed how these factors affect trade among member countries. In this study a large panel data set has been used to estimate the time series effect of currency union on trade. Data set includes annual bilateral trade between 5 countries from 1970 through 2007. In all the three models tested, the study finds that there is clear positive relation between currency union and trade and it is statistically significant. Controlling for a host of other factors, findings show that the effect of a common currency on bilateral trade between member countries varies from 100 per cent to 200 per cent. This study has proved that a common currency initiative can contribute in great deal to the economic development of the member countries in the region.
Download or read book Pan Africanism Regional Integration and Development in Africa written by Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume addresses the accomplishments, prospects and challenges of regional integration processes on the African continent. Since regional integration is a process that ebbs and flows according to a wide range of variables such as changing political and economic conditions, implications and factors derived from the vagaries of migration and climate change, it is crucial to be cognizant with how these variables impact regional integration initiatives. The contributors discuss the debates on Pan-Africanism and linking it with ongoing discourses and policies on regional integration in Africa. Other aspects of the book contain some of the most important topic issues such as migration, border management and the sustainable development goals. This content offers readers fresh and innovative perspectives on various aspects of sustainable development and regional growth in Africa.
