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

Download or read book Exchange Rate Liberalization in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries Successes, Failures, and Lessons written by Mr.Nils Øyvind Mæhle and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2013-01-31 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.