Money in the Middle East and North Africa: Monetary Policy Frameworks and Strategies

Monetary policy in the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries remains an understudied area; this book fills an important gap by examining monetary policy frameworks and monetary policy strategies in the region. Building on the editors’ earlier book, Monetary Policy and Central Banking in the Middle East and North Africa, which focused on central bank independence issues and on exchange rate regimes, this book emphasises monetary policy strategies. Part I contains an overview of the financial markets and institutions which condition the choice of monetary policy strategy in the countries of the region, followed by single-country studies on aspects of the monetary policy frameworks of Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Territory and Turkey. Part II includes analyses of the prospects for inflation targeting in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, of the monetary transmission mechanism in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, of the relative advantages of inflation targeting and exchange rate fixity with reference to Egypt, of the problem of fiscal dominance in Egypt, and of the inflationary implications of exchange rate fixity for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The contributors are experts from universities inside and outside the MENA region, from central banks in the region and from outside institutions such as the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

David Cobham is Professor of Economics at Heriot-Watt University, UK. His publications include (as co-editor with Ghassan Dibeh) Monetary Policy and Central Banking in the Middle East and North Africa (also published by Routledge), which complements this book.
Ghassan Dibeh is Professor of Economics at the Lebanese American University in Byblos, Lebanon. He is the editor of the journal Review of Middle East Economics and Finance.

List of tables List of figures Notes on contributors Preface 1. Introduction - David Cobham and Ghassan Dibeh Part I: Monetary policy frameworks 2. Monetary policy strategies, financial institutions and financial markets in the Middle East and North Africa: an overview - David Cobham 3. The political economy of stabilisation in post-war Lebanon - Ghassan Dibeh 4. The evolution of the monetary policy framework in Egypt and the elusive goal of price stability - Hoda Selim 5. Monetary policy and the central bank in Jordan - Samar Maziad 6. From occupation to an independent monetary policy: achievements and aspirations in Palestine - Jihad K. Wazir, Mohammad Atallah and Shaker A. Sarsour 7. The banking sector and macroeconomic performance: the case of Turkey - Berksoy Bilgin and Gülcin Özkan Part II: Monetary policy strategies 8. Monetary policy strategies and exchange rate regimes on the southern shore of the Mediterranean – developments and prospects - Thierry Bracke, Michal Franta and Jan Stráský 9. Channels and environments of monetary policy and their implications for its conduct in GCC countries - Wassim Shahin 10. Assessing inflation and output variability using a New Keynesian model: an application to Egypt - Rania Al-Mashat 11. Fiscal dominance: an obstacle to inflation targeting in Egypt - Hoda Abdel Ghaffar Youssef 12. Understanding the inflationary process in the GCC region: the cases of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait - Maher Hasan and Hesham Alogeel