Monetary policy committees at the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) and the Bank of the Central African States (BEAC)

Résumé :

Since the mid-2000s, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) and the Bank of the Central African States (BEAC) have equipped themselves with Monetary Policy Committees (MPC) for the franc zone. The matter of the optimal design of an MPC is very important because its structure influences its outcomes and possibly the quality of its decisions. This article analyses, in light of the literature, three aspects of the structure of the BCEAO and BEAC MPCs: size, composition and rules of decision-making. The finding is that both MPCs are large, heterogeneous and take their decisions by consensus without any real transparency.