Exchange Rate Liberalization in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries Successes, Failures, and Lessons

Nils Maehle, Haimanot Teferra and Armine Khachatryan

No 2013/032, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: Many sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries liberalized their economies in the 1980s and early 1990s. This paper reviews the foreign exchange regime reforms in selected SSA, and their associated macroeconomic policies and economic performance during and after these reforms were undertaken. Before liberalization, most of the reviewed countries were characterized by extensive foreign exchange rationing, sizeable black market premiums, and declining per capita real income. Today, the countries that successfully reformed look markedly different. Rationing and parallel market spreads are a distant memory, and per capita income has increased sharply.

Keywords: WP; exchange rate; U.S. dollar; government; country; headline inflation; proceeds; Exchange rate regimes; reforms; growth; inflation; structural adjustment; managed float; per capita income; inflation rate; exchange rate liberalization; stabilization effort; exchange rate depreciation; U.S. dollar exchange rate; adjustable peg; auction market; overvalued exchange rate; Exchange rates; Exchange rate arrangements; Currency markets; Sub-Saharan Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 71
Date: 2013-01-31
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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