Financial Depth in the WAEMU: Benchmarking Against Frontier SSA Countries

By Calixte Ahokpossi, Kareem Ismail, Sudipto Karmakar, Mesmin Koulet-Vickot

July 3, 2013

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Calixte Ahokpossi, Kareem Ismail, Sudipto Karmakar, and Mesmin Koulet-Vickot. Financial Depth in the WAEMU: Benchmarking Against Frontier SSA Countries, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2013) accessed September 19, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

Financial depth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been uneven over the last two decades. The WAEMU countries are lagging behind other regions, particularly the High Growth Non-oil Exporters (HGNOEs) group. We use two complementary methodologies to compare the two groups of countries. In a panel of 16 countries over 1997–2009, we find that the financial gap between the two groups of countries can be explained by institutional factors. In a benchmarking exercise comparing the major economy in the WAEMU (Côte d’Ivoire) with the most structurally similar in the control group (Mozambique), we show that Côte d’Ivoire underperformed relative to Mozambique and to its estimated potential. We then identify policy and institutional asymmetries between the two countries that could explain the gap in performance.

Subject: Bank credit, Banking, Credit, Financial markets, Financial sector development, Infrastructure, Legal support in revenue administration, Money, National accounts, Revenue administration

Keywords: Bank credit, Benchmarking, Contract enforcement, Credit, Credit coverage, Credit information collection, Financial development, Financial possibility frontier, Financial sector development, GDP, Global, Infrastructure, Legal support in revenue administration, Sub-Saharan Africa, WAEMU, WAEMU control variable, WAEMU region, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

23
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2013/161
Stock No:

WPIEA2013161
ISBN:

9781484309391
ISSN:

1018-5941

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