Inflation and stock return volatility in selected African countries: A GARCH-MIDAS approach

Abstract

Amidst persistent inflationary pressures in Africa and central banks raising rates to counter inflation, leading to a shift from stocks to alternative assets and impacting stock return volatility, this paper investigates the influence of inflation on stock return volatility in five African countries using the GARCH-MIDAS approach, using mixed data of daily and monthly frequencies. We observe that inflation is important for stock return volatility, as higher inflation increases volatility and reduces returns. Our results provide a better understanding of the dynamics of stock market volatility while accounting for the role of inflation, using the natural frequencies of the variables. Our findings encourage monetary authorities to communicate their inflation expectations to the market participants/investors to moderate negative stock return volatility.