Le prix de la fixité : Application à l'Union monétaire des Caraïbes orientales et à la Zone franc

Governments abandon the exchange rate flexibility in order to enhance the credibility of monetary policy and to achieve the stabilization of inflation. This policy is not costless because of the risk of real appreciation. The "hard peg" solutions ?' the exchange rate unions (Bordo and Jonung, 1999) ?' alleviate most of the causes of real appreciation. In compensation, when a deviation of the real exchange rate from the long term equilibrium occurs, they use an automatic adjustment mechanism funded upon deflation. The cost on conjuncture of deflationary pressures depends on nominal rigidities which are themselves influenced by the size of the economies. The countries belonging to the Franc Zone are freed of fixity constraints thanks to the borrowing facilities of the compte d?'opérations. Indeed, they avoid the conjectural cost of temporary real exchange rate deviations, but they stay sensitive to inflationary chocks due to the government.