Open Access Journal Article

African exchange rates amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

by Turki Rashed Alshammari a,*
a
Department of Business Administration, College of Business Administration, University of Hafr Al-Batin, Hafar Al-Batin, Saudi Arabia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
FEL  2024, 24; 3(1), 24; https://doi.org/10.58567/fel03010005
Received: 31 December 2023 / Accepted: 11 January 2024 / Published Online: 17 January 2024
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Abstract

The study investigates the impact of COVID-19 on African exchange rates, employing a panel dataset over the period 2016-2022 from 13 African economies and employing pooled OLS estimator. The findings reveal a noteworthy positive correlation between COVID-19 levels and exchange rates within the region. However, this association necessitates deeper exploration due to its multifaceted implications, including economic disruptions, government interventions, global market interconnections, regional stability perceptions, and investor behavior. Economic indicators, such as GDP, inflation rate, real interest rate, and unemployment rate, significantly influence exchange rates. While GDP positively impacts exchange rates through economic growth, investor confidence, and trade strength, controlled inflation fosters investor confidence and export competitiveness, positively affecting exchange rates. Moreover, a pronounced positive impact of the real interest rate indicates economic stability, attracting investment and contributing to currency appreciation. Conversely, high unemployment negatively affects exchange rates, signaling economic weaknesses and eroding investor confidence. These findings emphasize nuanced policy responses for managing health crisis-induced economic disruptions and suggest future research directions focusing on specific country-level analyses and multifaceted factors influencing currency valuations within African economies.

Keywords: Exchange Rate; African economies; COVID-19;
Copyright: © 2024 by Alshammari. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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ACS Style
Alshammari, T. R. African exchange rates amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial Economics Letters, 2024, 3, 24. https://doi.org/10.58567/fel03010005
AMA Style
Alshammari T R. African exchange rates amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial Economics Letters; 2024, 3(1):24. https://doi.org/10.58567/fel03010005
Chicago/Turabian Style
Alshammari, Turki R. 2024. "African exchange rates amidst the COVID-19 pandemic" Financial Economics Letters 3, no.1:24. https://doi.org/10.58567/fel03010005
APA style
Alshammari, T. R. (2024). African exchange rates amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial Economics Letters, 3(1), 24. https://doi.org/10.58567/fel03010005

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