A healthy and dynamic financial sector is essential to achieving high and sustainable economic growth in the Maghreb region-Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. Financial integration within the Maghreb region will help deepen financial markets, increase their efficiency, and enhance...

Analysis of 1960-2002 data shows that average real GDP growth in sub-Saharan Africa was low and decelerated continuously before starting to recover in the second part of the 1990s. Growth was driven primarily by factor accumulation with little role for total factor productivity (TFP) growth. The...

This paper assesses empirically the role of public policies in stimulating private savings and investment in sub-Saharan African countries, based on data for the period 1986-92. The main findings of the analysis are as follows: (i) policies effective in stimulating private savings and investment...

Whether the prospective shift of the peg of the CFA franc to the euro would constitute an exchange rate arrangement with EMU countries would depend critically on the interpretation of the free convertibility of the CFA franc guaranteed by France. Nonetheless, this shift is likely to leave the...

The analysis of this paper indicates that the unsatisfactory overall economic performance of sub-Saharan African countries during 1986–93 was due to inappropriate policies pursued by a number of countries. The countries that have pursued broadly appropriate adjustment policies have performed...

The paper investigates empirically the determinants of economic growth for a large sample of sub-Saharan African countries during 1981-92. The results indicate that (i) an increase in private investment has a relatively large positive impact on per capita growth; (ii) growth is stimulated by...