Transparency in the two central banks of African franc zone: assessment and international comparison

In the 1980s, central banks were characterized by secrecy since they deployed very little effort to inform economic agents about their intentions, motives and actions. In the early 1990s new regulations and layouts increased the levels of transparency of central banks. This layouts crescent showed the growing importance of transparency.\r\n\r\nThis article, which is aligned with the paper and Malik Din (2008), assesses the BCEAO transparency indices and BEAC using the method advocated by Eijffinger and Geraats (2006) and compared with those of nineteen other central banks in both industrialized and developing countries. The results show not only that the BCEAO and BEAC are less transparent than the central banks of developed countries but also that there is a big difference in the indices of transparency between the two central banks of the franc zone countries and those of other developing countries.