COVID-era monetary policy response in francophone West Africa with a focus on Cote dIvoire

Abstract

At the end of 2019, the world was hit with the deadly novel virus named COVID-19, an infection that started in China in December 2019 as an outbreak and turned into an epidemic that spread all over the world to become a pandemic raising fear and anxiety. Countries in West Africa braced for the worst. Indeed, given the weaknesses of the economies in this region characterized by acute poverty, inequality, low literacy, fragile health and “agrarian agriculture,” it was feared that they could be hit hardest. This fear led central banks to take swift actions to safeguard these economies. In this chapter, we take a closer look at the monetary policy response to Covid-19 in Cote d’Ivoire, a francophone western African country and member of an eight-country regional economic and monetary union. We itemize and examine the monetary policy actions taken by Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest” (BCEAO), the union’s central bank. We also look at specific actions taken by local Ivorian authorities and their interaction with the central bank’s policy decisions.