REGS Outils de lecture

This paper aims to present the theoretical foundations, challenges and obstacles to this monetary integration in the ECOWAS zone. It is part of a context in which the Convergence Pact had been put in place (2001) and then strengthened (2012) to allow better conditions for launching the common currency. To achieve our objectives, we start from questions of scientific orientation inspired by economic theory and specifically from the lessons of fiscal policy in monetary union. Indeed, following Mundell's (1961) approach, a monetary zone is optimal when the gains from the nominal anchor are greater than the costs resulting from the renunciation of the exchange rate as an adjustment instrument (Diop, 2007). Empirically, whatever the methodological orientation chosen, studies agree on the observation that the ECOWAS space did not constitute, at least at the outset, an optimal monetary area. Therefore, the purpose of a research being to make a projection of the empirical results in terms of economic and political stakes, we consider it necessary that it is important to emphasize the questions of economic integration in a momentum. better implementation of the challenges linked to the coordination of budgetary policies within the zone before the launch of the single currency.