
SUMMARY
In most African countries, the economy is generally driven by exports. This is not the case
of Senegal as its economy is driven by domestic demand. In this regard, over the past three
decades, the Senegalese exports could not cover the costs of imports of goods and services,
reinforcing the structural deficit in the trade balance. This is often interpreted as a weakness
of the country’s competitiveness.
In such a situation, the real effective exchange rate of Senegal, which is the main indicator of
price competitiveness used by the authorities, indicating a slight gain in competitiveness from 5
percentage points. Indeed, an appreciation of the real effective exchange rate is often interpreted
as a loss of price competitiveness of the country. However, an appreciation of the real effective
exchange rate may reflect an increase in competitiveness due to productivity growth from one
country against those trading partners. Thus, with a view to know whether a real exchange
rate appreciation is due to a loss of competitiveness, it’s important to analyze the real effective
exchange rate with reference to an equilibrium exchange rate.
This paper aims to discuss the following items :
?Estimate the equilibrium real exchange rate of Senegal following the approaches chosen.
?Estimate the misalignment of the real effective exchange rate ; that allows to deduce the
periods and the extent of under and overvaluation of the currency in Senegal.
?Amongst the estimated misalignments of exchange, identify a relevant indicator of price
competitiveness of Senegal.
Our analysis allowed us to lead to the following results :
?The estimation of equilibrium real exchange rate was done using two approaches : the Beha-
vioral Equilibrium Exchange Rate (BEER) approach and Macroeconomic Balance approach.
Of these two approaches, we estimated four equilibrium exchange rate of Senegal, the Be-
havioral Equilibrium Exchange Rate (BEER), the Permanent Equilibrium Exchange Rate
(PEER), the Fundamental Equilibrium Exchange Rate (FEER) and the Desired Equilibrium
Exchange Rate (DEER). Depending on the exchange rate mésalignments estimated, it ap-
pears that whatever the approach, the real effective exchange rate in Senegal is misaligned.
After the devaluation of the CFA franc in 1994, the Senegalese economy has moved from
a situation of overvaluation to a situation of under-valuation of exchange rates this in dif-
ferent proportions. In addition, the two approaches agree on the fact that the currency was
overvalued in Senegal during the periods 1987-93 and 2004-09 ; this periods corresponding to
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