Prospects for Inflation Targeting in the MENA Region: Feasibility, Desirability and Alternatives

Inflation targeting (IT) has recently become the dominant monetary policy prescription over the last decade. Emerging markets governments, in particular, are increasingly pressured to follow IT as part of their IMF-led stabilization packages and the routine rating procedures of the international finance institutions. However, the common expectation of IT promoters that price stability would ultimately lead to macroeconomic stability and sustained growth has failed to materialize. This paper is an attempt to assess the desirability of the IT regime for a select group of MENA countries. I also argue that modern central banking ought to have more policy space in balancing out various objectives and instruments, and that central bank `independence' should not be equivalent to central bank `irrelevance.'