Fiscal and Monetary Policy Coordination in African Emerging Markets: Macroeconomic Performance During Crisis Periods

Whilst there is consensus on the importance of monetary and fiscal policy in emerging market economies (EMEs), their impact on inflation, and growth dynamics during crisis periods is still not clear. This study examines the impact of fiscal and monetary policy on macroeconomic performance indicators (output gap, inflation, and real GDP growth), with a focus on the role of their coordination during crisis periods. The study uses fixed-effects models and annual data from 17 emerging market African economies for the period 1989 to 2023. Empirical findings demonstrate that policy coordination significantly shapes macroeconomic outcomes, though effects vary by policy instrument and target variable. Fiscal-monetary coordination marginally improves the output gap, suggesting the importance of policy alignment to stabilize demand. High monetary policy rates coincide with fiscal deficits, high inflation and hence policy conflict. Whilst policy coordination can effectively manage short term demand, via the output gap, results show that it is less effective in influencing long-term supply-side growth. Public debt is negatively associated with both output gap and output growth, confirming the debt overhang hypothesis in emerging markets. Finally, results show that exchange rate appreciation is linked to lower inflation and smaller output gap, likely through imported disinflation. This study recommends that policy makers undertake synchronized, countercyclical policy frameworks and strengthen institutional capacity to deal with complex policy trade-offs during crisis periods.Copyright© 2026 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Article’s History: Received 5th of March, 2026; Revised 14th of April, 2026; Accepted 12th of May, 2026; Available online: 30th of June, 2026. Published as research article in the Volume XXI, Summer, Issue 3(93), 2026.