Abstract
This paper revisits the interaction between monetary policy, exchange rate inertia and inflation expectations with consideration for the West African Monetary Zone. It is an inquiry into the extent to which monetary policy lags and exchange rate depreciation influence inflation targeting in the six WAMZ countries. The data for the study were drawn from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and National Central Banks, covering the period 1995-2024. The study follows the autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) as the major estimation technique. Empirical feedback reveals that monetary policy inertia has an indirect but substantial effect on the inflation expectation in the WAMZ, while exchange rate inertia exhibits a direct but insignificant relationship with the inflation expectation. The study therefore concluded that with the high pass-through and the exchange rate as one of the main indicators, the central banks are expected to improve their strategies of managing the exchange rate on a formal basis. Also, to resolve the issue of fiscal dominance, which damages the credibility of the monetary policy, governments need to strive to limit central bank financing and enhance public debt management.