Central banking in Africa: prospects in a changing world

Governors and senior officials representing some two dozen central banks from Africa and other regions of the world met at the BIS in May 2011 to discuss the monetary policy and financial stability issues facing Africa after the global financial crisis. This volume brings together the background papers prepared for that meeting. The papers cover four broad areas where the crisis could have had potentially the largest impact on central banking in Africa: (i) financial access; (ii) governance arrangements for financial stability; (iii) changes in monetary policy transmission mechanisms; and (iv) capital flows, commodity prices and exchange rates. An overview chapter summarises the main points raised in the discussions and in the background papers. A special feature of the volume are the opening remarks on financial inclusion and the regulation of microfinance, followed by a transcript of the question and answer session with Professor Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

JEL classification: E42, E44, E52, E58, F21, F32, F34, G21, G28, O16, O23, O55