Developments in the countries of the CFA franc zone in the aftermath of the January 1994 devaluation of the CFA franc are reviewed in this paper. Following a summary of the new adjusment strategy, the papers describes the progress made and the difficulties encountered during 1994 and early 1995...

The regional strategy has helped stabilize the regional economic position thanks to large fiscal consolidation efforts, a tighter monetary policy, and external financial assistance. The external position improved, and external reserves picked up. However, the region remains dependent on oil...

This study reviews developments in the European Monetary System from the beginning of 1983 to August 1986; it updates and complements an earlier study prepared by staff members of the International Monetary Fund and published Occasional Paper No. 19, which covered the time period from the inception...

Effective Fund surveillance over the members of currency unions entails discussions at the regional level. This requirement derives from the fact that currency union members have devolved responsibility for policy areas that are central to Fund surveillance, notably monetary and exchange rate...

In this paper we analyze the degree of policy convergence of EMS member countries relative to that of some non-EMS countries. Interestingly, we find convergence for the nominal and real exchange rates and money supplies of the EMS members but not for the non-EMS countries. We also provide some...

A common rationale for EMS membership is that it enhances the credibility of a central bank’s commitment to stable monetary growth. In this paper we consider this idea in the light of two features of the system, namely, the existence of exchange rate bands and the prevalence of capital...

This paper extends recent work by Feldstein and Horioka (1980) and Bayoumi (1990), and examines saving-investment correlations for industrial countries in the post-war period. The focus of the enquiry is on differences observed between EMS and non-EMS countries. It is seen that the EMS countries...