Duality in cyclical trends in the West African CFA franc zone between 1970 and 2007

The purpose of this study is to verify if the West African Economic and Monetary Union can be identified as a becoming optimum monetary area in terms of existing synchronization of national economic cycles, as it known that their single currency rather belongs to an economic arrangement created during colonization. This paper provides the identification of a common cycle of the west African CFA Franczone, expressed as either an aggregate national cycle or a common cycle coming out of a multivariate analysis of the cycle. The analysis reveals that Côte d'Ivoire, which has the highest economic weight in the region, contributes mostly to the common cycle of the west African CFA Franczone. Therefore, we notice a co-movement phenomenon of short and long national cycles. An average conformity between the national cycles and the common cycle is to be pointed out.