Monetary policy in Africa has become more orthodox

FOR MORE than a month protesters in Sudan have defied tear-gas and bullets to demand the resignation of Omar al-Bashir, the president. The unrest began with demonstrations against soaring food prices; inflation is above 70%. There is turbulence, too, in Zimbabwe, where the central bank’s “bond notes”, a kind of local dollar, are reviving memories of hyperinflation. Protests broke out on January 14th after the government raised fuel prices. The crackdown was lethal and swift.

Such crises grab headlines. But they obscure a big shift. In Africa, as in advanced economies, inflation has fallen over the long term. In the 1980s a fifth of countries south of the Sahara endured average annual inflation of at least 20%. This decade only the two Sudans have (the rate in Zimbabwe is tricky to measure). Runaway prices are now the exception, not the rule.

African countries took different routes to orthodoxy. Inflation is rarely a problem for the 15 in west and central Africa with currencies pegged to the euro. They have imported central-bank credibility from Europe. Elsewhere, monetary policy was reformed in the 1990s under the guidance of the IMF. Governments gave more independence to central banks. Some let exchange rates float. And they stopped printing so...