Régimes de change intermédiaires dans les économies émergentes: le cas du Maroc[Intermediate Exchange Rate Regimes in Emerging Economies: The Case of Morocco]

In this paper, we estimate the relative weights of each foreign currency in the basket of currencies comprising the dirham for the period 1973-2003 on monthly data. We show that before the advent of the euro, the exchange rate regime in Morocco was a "Crawling Basket (basket slippery). This basket reflects quite well the geographical distribution of foreign trade of the country, but also takes into account denominated debt. The birth of the euro has led, after 1999, a profound change in the exchange rate policy in Morocco. On the one hand, the automatic component of the adjustment of the exchange rate of dirham: slipping according to the inflation differential between Morocco and its partners has been abandoned; domestic inflation has been stabilized at a level comparable to that of developed economies. On the other hand, the substitution of European national currencies by the euro, synonymous with a decrease in the variety of currencies used in the composition of the basket, the tradeoff between stabilizing the debt burden and maintaining external competitiveness vis-à-vis European trade partners, have led the monetary Moroccan authorities to diversify the composition of the basket by introducing new currencies outside the European area, it is the British Pound and perhaps Franc Switzerland.