HICP Inflation Research Articles

Inflation and Fiscal Policy: Is There a Threshold Effect in the Fiscal Reaction Function?

Abstract The euro area, like other advanced economies, faced high inflation over the past years. We analyse empirically the impact of inflation on public finances in the euro area, focusing on the question of whether at such high levels, inflation could have a different impact on the primary budget balance. To this end, we estimate a fiscal reaction function for euro area countries and find evidence of non-linear short-term effects of HICP inflation on the primary balance. Over the period 1999–2022, we unveil an inverse U-turn relationship and an inflation turning point – beyond which its short-term (contemporaneous) impact on the primary balance starts being negative. These results reflect primarily the most recent high inflation episode and indicate that in such conditions inflation can be costly for public finance flows even in the shorter run.

The effects of the ECB’s expanded asset purchase programme

Abstract This paper provides empirical evidence on the financial and macroeconomic impact of the news associated to the announcement launching the ECB’s expanded asset purchase programme (APP). We proxy the APP announcement shock with an announcement variable derived from the institutional features of the APP and survey-based evidence. The variable is used in a time-varying coefficient VAR model with stochastic volatility to estimate the effects of the announcement shock. The evidence suggests that this shock had a significant upward effect on both real economic activity and HICP inflation in the euro area. The response of long-term interest rates gave rise to a flattening of the yield curve in the short term, followed by a steepening in the medium term. Several channels of transmission appear to have been activated, including the portfolio rebalancing channel, the exchange rate channel and the credit channel.

Contributions to inflation after euro adoption: the case of Central and Eastern European countries

Motivation: Based on theory, the introduction of a single currency should cause a decrease in transaction costs, which in effect should lead to a drop in consumer prices. However, there is a common perception that the introduction of the single currency is conductive to excessive price increases with this providing a sufficient justification against the introduction of the euro. People subjectively estimate information on a certain economic phenomenon, and that estimation may not necessarily correspond to facts. The discrepancy between perceived inflation and its actual level in the new euro area member states may result from different inflation levels among varying consumption categories.Aim: The aim of the presented research is to assess the impact of the introduction of the single currency (euro) on the inflation rate in a breakdown by COICOP category in 5 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which in the years 2007–2015 adopted the common EU currency.Results: The research was carried out using the comparative method. The inflation indicators were used in 12 categories of classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP). The research was conducted using a medium-term perspective: from the five years before the adoption of the euro to five years after its implementation. After the adoption of the euro, prices grew faster than the general indicator of inflation in two COICOP categories. The first of them was restaurants and hotels; while the second was alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics. In the case of other inflation categories, no regularity was observed. In all investigated Central and Eastern European countries, the medium-term HICP inflation was lower after euro adoption than before.

Estimating the Effects of the Eurosystem's Asset Purchase Programme at the Country Level

We assess the macroeconomic effects of the Eurosystem's asset purchases on the four largest euro area economies using simulation exercises that combine unconventional monetary policy shocks with a fixed policy rate for the duration of the purchase programme. We identify unconventional monetary policy shocks in a large Bayesian vector autoregressive (BVAR) model as shocks to the term structure of interest rates using zero and sign restrictions. We propose a multi-country model in which we impose identification assumptions mainly on euro area aggregate financial variables and on country averages of output and price responses. Furthermore, the multi-country structure allows testing for cross-country differences in the effects of the asset purchase programme in a statistically rigorous way using the posterior of the difference between the country-specific effects. We estimate positive output effects in all countries as well as positive effects on bank lending to firms. Effects on HICP inflation, generally, are much weaker. We find substantial cross-country heterogeneity with the largest price level effects in Spain while output effects were smallest in France and inflation effects were smallest in Italy.

Introduction of the Single Currency and Inflation - the Case of Central and Eastern European Countries

The study of price increases in five countries (Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) aimed to assess the introduction of the single currency (euro) on the rate of HICP inflation in two short-term perspectives: after the first month and after the first year of the introduction of the euro in these countries. The following hypothesis was put forward: prices after the introduction of the euro are contained in the inflation target, that is, there can be no substantial increase, and contrasting views on the issue are only an effect of illusion, that is, the difference between actual and perceived inflation level. The research was carried out using the comparative method. They show that the inflation effect in the euro-adopting countries was clearly convergent with the level of price growth recorded at the same time in other European Union countries, including those already with a single currency. The result is that the reasons for excessive price growth in the short-term perspective should not be sought in connection with the introduction of the euro, but rather explained by e.g. the convergence of business cycles with these euro area countries in which HICP inflation target exceedance was recorded at the same time. There can be also any other conditions that affect price growth in all European countries, regardless of whether they belong to euro area or have its national currencies.

Effects of Monetary Asset- Price Transmission on Investment and Inflation in the Euro Area

Since the onset of the financial markets’ crisis in late 2008, the Eurozone has been subject to rather volatile headline inflation, occasionally even turning into (an admittedly modest) deflation. As eventually, conventional monetary policy seemed to be exhausted, the European Central Bank (ECB) resorted to unprece- dented unconventional measures. In 2010, it launched a first gov- ernment bond purchasing programme, which was followed by a series of different programmes, swelling its balance sheet to c. €4.7tn as per May 2019. The induced asset-price-inflation in con- junction with a continuous and persistently low HICP inflation rates inevitably raises the question how effective monetary trans- mission – particularly via asset-prices – (still) is.
 This contribution will investigate the effects of monetary asset- price transmission on investments and inflation. First, it analyses the reliability of stock markets as an indicator for firms’ investment, while emphasising the importance of uncertainty. Sec- ond, the paper examines how rising stock prices affected firms’ balance sheet and lending. Further, it provides an explanation as to why monetary policy failed to amplify lending in peripheral mem- ber states and why it had a comparatively low effect on borrowing costs in these regions. Third, it scrutinises the implication of an output gap, which monetary policy seeks to create, on different inflation parameters. Thus, the paper illustrates why the effects on HICP-inflation are less pronounced compared to other inflation measures.

Is the Phillips curve still alive? Evidence from the euro area

We estimate the Phillips curve for the euro area and its five largest economies over 1985–2017 using an unobserved component model for inflation and unemployment. Inflation expectations are modeled as the trend component of annualized HICP inflation. We have three results. First, the relationship between unemployment and inflation is negative and significant in the euro area, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Second, the Phillips curve slope is heterogeneous across countries. Third, the slope has not changed significantly since the Global Financial Crisis.

What Common Factors are Driving Inflation in CEE Countries?

In this paper, we analyse the sources of time variation in consumer inflation across ten Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries and five sectors (durables, semidurables, non-durables, food, and services) in the period 2001-2013. With a multi-level factor model we decompose product-level HICP inflation rates into CEE region-wide, sector, country, country-sector specific and idiosyncratic components. The outcomes indicate that two region-wide factors explain about 17% of variance in monthly price changes, whereas the other common components explain below 10% each. The regionwide and country specific components are persistent in opposition to sector and product-level components, which is generally in line with similar studies for core EU countries. Surprisingly, CEE-wide component is relatively more important and as volatile than lower-level components, which is at odds with the results on the importance of sectoral prices. This difference may be related to the conclusion that the first CEE-wide factor is associated with common disinflationary processes that occurred in CEE countries on their road to the European Union, whereas the second one reveals significant correlations with global factors, especially commodity prices and euro area price developments.

The Macroeconomic Impact of the ECB's Expanded Asset Purchase Programme (APP)

This paper provides empirical evidence on the macroeconomic impact of the expanded asset purchase programme APP) announced by the European Central Bank (ECB) in January 2015. The shock associated to the APP is identified with a combination of sign, timing and magnitude restrictions in the context of an estimated time-varying parameter VAR model with stochastic volatility. The evidence suggests that the APP had a significant upward effect on both real GDP and HICP inflation in the euro area during the first two years. The effect on real GDP appears to be stronger in the short term, while that on HICP inflation seems more marked in the medium term. Moreover, several channels of transmission appear to have been activated, including the portfolio rebalancing channel, the exchange rate channel, the inflation re-anchoring channel and the credit channel. JEL Classification: C32, E44, E52, E58

Low Inflation in the Euro Area: Causes and Consequences

After 2012, inflation has been unexpectedly low across much of the developed world and economists speak of a “missing inflation” puzzle, namely inflation was expected to be higher on the back of an ongoing recovery. This paper investigates the causes and consequences of low inflation in the euro area after 2012 and analyses whether monetary policy has been successful in dampening the risks associated to low inflation. The paper finds that the missing inflation was primarily due to cyclical factors – domestic in the earlier part of the period and global in the latter part – and that the Phillips curve remains a useful tool in understanding inflation dynamics over the period of interest. The succession of negative shocks constrained headline inflation for a prolonged period, and there is evidence of an increase in the persistence of inflation and a fall in the trend inflation rate, which had begun to have a greater influence on longer-term inflation expectations. This may have signaled uncertainty over the effectiveness of unconventional monetary policy measures, but public belief in the ECB’s commitment to keep the annual rate of HICP inflation below but close to 2% has remained intact. The paper concludes that unconventional monetary policy measures are effective in mitigating the downside risks to price stability, curtailing risks of de-anchoring, and expanding aggregate demand.

Anchoring of inflation expectations in the euro area: Recent evidence based on survey data

This article analyses the anchoring of inflation expectations of professional forecasters and consumers in the euro area. We study anchoring, defined as the central bank's ability to manage expectations, by paying special attention to the impact of the ECB inflation target and ECB inflation projections on inflation expectations. Our analysis indicates that in the post-crisis period longer-term inflation expectations have become somewhat more sensitive to shorter-term ones and to actual HICP inflation. We also find that the ECB inflation projections have recently become more important for short- and medium-term expectations of professional forecasters and at the same time the role of the ECB inflation target for those expectations has diminished. Overall, our analysis suggests that in recent years inflation expectations in the euro area have shown some signs of de-anchoring.

Point and density forecasts for the euro area using Bayesian VARs

We evaluate variants of the Bayesian vector autoregressive (BVAR) model with respect to their relative and absolute forecast accuracies using point and density forecasts for euro area HICP inflation and GDP growth. We consider BVAR averaging with equal and optimal weights, Bayesian factor augmented VARs (BFAVARs), and large BVARs with ad-hoc, optimal, and estimated hyperparameters. BVAR averaging delivers relatively high RMSEs, but performs better in terms of predictive likelihoods. Large BVARs show the opposite pattern, while BFAVARs perform satisfactorily under both criteria. Continuous ranked probability scores indicate that large BVARs suffer most from extreme observations. Using calibration tests, we detect that most BVARs produce reasonable density forecasts for HICP inflation, but not for GDP growth. In an extensive sensitivity analysis, we show that large BVARs are an excellent choice for certain specifications (recursive estimation, 22 variables, iterative approach, and optimal or estimated hyperparameters), while BFAVARs are competitive under most specifications, and specifically when the cross section is large.

Euro-Dollar Polarization and Heterogeneity in Exchange Rate Pass-Throughs within the Euro Zone

This paper provides an empirical study of the asymmetrical spillovers of the euro-US dollar exchange rate on the inflation in the euro zone, dividing the sample in two groups of countries: core and periphery. Then we test if the euro-US dollar exchange rate is still able to give a different impact on the groups’ performance as in the past US dollar-deutschmark polarization phenomenon studying the intra-euro area differences in exchange rate pass-through (ERPT), as an important element of inflation dynamics.Using a dynamic panel data framework based on an exchange rate pass-through model, we estimate the elasticities of the two groups by system IV-GMM and the common correlated effects mean group estimator, which deals with the presence of cross-sectional dependence.We conclude that the euro-US dollar is still an important factor, but not the only key factor, in determining the asymmetry in HICP inflation between core and periphery. The nominal effective exchange rate instead is an important driver for the inflation, but only considering the euro zone as a whole.The EMU seems to not have insulated enough some member countries from nominal external shocks. The nominal effective exchange rate is also a factor to take into account in order to analyze the recent low inflation in the euro zone, even if the size of the ERPT is relatively small.

What Common Factors are Driving Inflation in CEE Countries?

In this paper, we analyse the sources of time variation in consumer inflation across ten Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries and five sectors (durables, semidurables, non-durables, food, and services) in the period 2001-2013. With a multi-level factor model we decompose product-level HICP inflation rates into the following components: CEE region wide, sector, country, country-sector, and idiosyncratic. The outcomes indicate that region-wide and country specific components of inflation are more persistent than sector and product-level components, which is in line with similar studies for core EU countries. Two region-wide factors explain about 17% of variance in monthly price changes, whereas the other common components explain below 10% each. The results are at odds with empirical evidence on the importance of sectoral price shocks in developed economies and the volatility-persistence puzzle. This difference may be related to the conclusion that the first region-wide factor is associated with common disinflationary processes that occurred in CEE economies in 2000s, whereas the second one reveals significant correlations with global factors, especially commodity prices and euro area price developments.

Point and Density Forecasts for the Euro Area Using Bayesian VARs

Recent articles suggest that a Bayesian vector autoregression (BVAR) with shrinkage is a good forecast device even when the number of variables is large. In this paper we evaluate different variants of the BVAR with respect to their forecast accuracy for euro area real GDP growth and HICP inflation. We consider BVAR averaging, Bayesian factor augmented VARs (BFAVARs), and large BVARs, which differ in the way information is condensed and shrinkage is implemented. We find that: (a) large BVARs produce accurate point forecasts but show a poor performance when the entire density is considered; (b) BVAR averaging shows the opposite pattern; (c) BFAVARs perform well under both evaluation criteria; (d) choosing the degree of shrinkage optimally does not improve forecast accuracy; (e) all variants except the large BVAR tend to be well calibrated for inflation but poorly calibrated for real GDP growth; (f) these findings are robust to several features of the forecast experiment.

Euro area money demand and international portfolio allocation: A contribution to assessing risks to price stability

This paper argues that a stable broad money demand for the euro area over the period 1980–2011 can be obtained by modelling cross border international portfolio allocation. As a consequence, model-based excess liquidity measures, namely the difference between actual M3 growth (net of the inflation objective) and the expected money demand trend dynamics, can be useful to predict HICP inflation.

What Drives the European Central Bank's Interest-Rate Changes?

We show that the ECB's interest rate changes during 1999-2010 have been mainly driven by changes in economic activity in the Euro area. Changes in actual or expected future HICP inflation play a minor, if any, role.

The Role of Oil Prices in the Euro Area Economy Since the 1970s

This paper explores the role of oil prices in the euro area economy since the 1970s by applying a VAR framework with time varying parameters and stochastic volatility in which oil supply and global demand shocks are identified. Our results show that both types of shock contributed substantially to the oil price surges during historical oil crises and likewise to those over the past decade. Counterfactual histories of the price and activity variables, moreover, reveal much larger adverse contributions of both shocks to HICP inflation and GDP in the first half of the sample than in the second, which suggests that changes related to these shocks have contributed to the Great Moderation. Impulse responses, moreover, show that a decline in the pass through of the two shocks has added to the moderating contribution over time, while variance decompositions indicate no change in the relative importance of the two shocks over time.

Inflation Differentials in a Currency Area: Facts, Explanations and Policy

The determinants of inflation differentials in a currency area are analyzed both from an empirical and a theoretical perspective. The empirical analysis shows that a sizeable dispersion of HICP inflation rates across euro-area countries arises mostly in the components based on non-traded goods. There is also a significant cross-country heterogeneity in the response to changes in a common latent factor which accounts for a large fraction of the dispersion in national inflation rates. A stylized model of a currency area is used to understand the interrelation among shocks, structures and policies in driving the data generating process. The model shows that the dynamic of the inflation differentials is largely driven by the variability of productivity in the non-tradable sector of the more flexible economy. Conversely, the output differentials is largely driven by the variability in the productivity of the tradable sector, also of the more flexible economy. Optimal policy is investigated together with an analysis of the optimal adjustment to adopting a common currency with initial incorrect real exchange rate parity.

Assessing the Gap between Observed and Perceived Inflation in the Euro Area: Is the Credibility of the HICP at Stake?

We find strong econometric support for a break in the relationship between perceived and HICP inflation in the euro area, triggered by the introduction of euro notes and coins in January 2002. The break is fairly homogeneous across individuals with different socio-economic characteristics. We found no support for the thesis according to which perceptions are systematically formed by frequently purchased products. A similar break is found when national CPIs instead of HICPs are used as benchmarks. The role of the non-inclusion of owner-occupied housing in the HICP was negligible. Therefore the credibility of the HICP per se is not at stake.