The 1992-93 EMS Crisis and the South: Lessons from the Franc Zone System and the 1994 CFA Franc Devaluation

Rodrigue Dossou-Cadja ()
Additional contact information
Rodrigue Dossou-Cadja: Sapienza University of Rome, Paris School of Economics, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales

No 2025.18, Working Papers from International Network for Economic Research - INFER

Abstract: The January 11, 1994, CFA franc devaluation stands as the most significant macroeconomic reform in nearly a century of the Franc Zone system, particularly following the political independences of former African French colonies in the 1960s. Whilst conventional narratives attribute it to fiscal excesses in major economies like Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon, newly uncovered archival data from the Banque de France, the Bank of England, the Bundesbank (the latter two sourced from Eichengreen and Naef, 2022), and the IMF challenge this view. Instead, I reinstate the devaluation within a much broader common African-European experience: the 1992–93 European Monetary System (EMS) crisis. Evidence unveils its critical role in shoring up the French franc’s credibility amidst the crisis and suggests a new ‘democratic Franc Zone’s Transition Committee’ within the Banque de France/Eurosystem for future governance.

Keywords: CFA franc devaluation; Franc Zone; European Monetary System; Currency crisis; Political Independences; Narrative approach (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F N (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://infer-research.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/WP2025.18.pdf First version, 2025 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inf:wpaper:2025.18

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from International Network for Economic Research - INFER Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Pedro Cerqueira ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).