Inflation Projections Research Articles

ARMA-Based Inflation Forecasting Under the Inflation Targeting Framework in Sri Lanka

Inflation targeting has been introduced as one of the monetary policy framework since the end of the 1990s. Forecasting inflation under the inflation-targeting monetary policy framework is also expected to improve with superior performance by constantly feeding updated information into the forecasting process, considering the domestic and global market conditions and developments. Literature evidence that inflation forecasting under inflation targeting is a challenging task with risk and uncertainty that are not easy to capture even in the latest modeling techniques. Inflation-targeting monetary policy was adopted by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka after the enactment of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Act with effect from 15.09.2023. This study examines inflation forecasting under the inflation-targeting monetary policy in Sri Lanka implemented with a clear mandate assigned in the agreement for a flexible inflation targeting framework to guide the market and inflation expectations. Automatic ARIMA forecasting techniques are employed to forecast inflation using two series of price indices with different base years from 2016M01 to 2026M12, and 2022M01 to 2026 M12 including 30 months as forecasting length. According to the findings, inflation forecasting is in line with the 5 percent targeted level with a 3 percent margin to fluctuate for both sides subject to the upside and downside risk factors. Accordingly, Inflation forecasting is within the inflation projections indicated under the inflation fan chart. It further suggests that inflation has been gradually stable in SL compared to the recently elevated inflation experience. Therefore, inflation targeting and projections can be used to shape and guide market expectations to facilitate decision-making in forward looking policies toward achieving and maintaining domestic price stability, which is the primary objective of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Exploring the informativeness and drivers of tone during committee meetings: The case of the Federal Reserve

This paper examines the informativeness and drivers of the tone used by FOMC members to gain insights into the decision-making process of the FOMC. We use a bag-of-words approach to measure the tone of transcripts at the speaker-meeting-round level from 1992-2009 and find persistent differences in tone among FOMC members. We also document how Presidents of regional Federal Reserve Banks use a more volatile and positive tone than the Federal Reserve Bank Board of Governors members. Next, we investigate whether the tone used during FOMC deliberations is associated with future monetary policy decisions and study the drivers of differences in tone among FOMC members. Our results suggest that tone is useful in predicting future policy decisions and that differences in tone are mainly associated with the differences in the individual inflation projections of FOMC members.

Inflation and stock market growth: the case of IPO withdrawal

PurposeDriven by the anticipated global stagflation, this straightforward yet novel study examines the cost of inflation as a macroeconomic factor by investigating its influence on stock market growth. Thus, this paper aims to examine the impact of inflation on the probability of initial public offering (IPO) withdrawal decision.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs a large dataset that covers the period January 1995–December 2019 and comprises 33,536 successful or withdrawn IPOs from 22 nations with various legal and cultural systems. This study applies a probit model utilizing version 15 of Stata statistical software.FindingsThis study finds that inflation is substantially and positively correlated with the likelihood of IPO withdrawal. Results of this study show that the IPO withdrawal decision increases up to 90% when the inflation rate climbs by 10%. Multiple robustness tests provide consistent findings.Practical implicationsThis study's implications are important for researchers, investment banks, underwriters, issuers, regulators and stock exchanges. When processing IPO proposals, investment banks, underwriters and issuers must consider inflation projections to avoid negative effects, as demonstrated by the findings. In addition, regulators and stock exchanges must be aware of the detrimental impact of inflation on competitiveness in attracting new listings.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to present convincing evidence of a major relationship between IPO withdrawal decision and inflation.

Do Central Bank Communications Influence Survey of Professional Forecasters? An Empirical Investigation

The present study contributes to our understanding regarding private-sector inflation expectations and how central bank communications influence them in an emerging economy like India. This study uses the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) regression function to estimate the influence of the determinants on the survey of professional forecasters for a period ranging from Q1 2014–2015 to Q4 2021–2022. Our results demonstrate the significant positive influence of the lagged period inflation forecasted by the professionals and central bank communications in the form of inflation projections on the inflation forecasted by the professionals in the current period. Macroeconomic variables like repo rate, lagged realized inflation, GDP, merchandise exports and imports, and crude oil rates turned out to be non-significant in influencing the inflation forecasted by the professionals, at least in the short run. The literature highlights the importance of anchoring private-sector expectations by the central bank in an economy, and our results provide empirical evidence for the same, along with its implications on policy making.

Oil price assumptions for macroeconomic policy

We evaluate the economic usefulness of oil price forecasts by means of conditional forecasting of five US macroeconomic indicators. First, we forecast oil prices using a mixed sampling frequency framework, where oil prices are driven by information available at high-frequency; and subsequently we proceed with our macroeconomic conditional forecasts. Overall, there is diminishing importance of oil price forecasts for inflation projections, whereas the reverse holds true for inflation expectations, industrial production and producers price index. An array of arguments is presented as to why this might be the case. Our findings remain robust to alternative forecasting frameworks and model specifications.

Economic forecasting in a pandemic: some evidence from Singapore.

This paper aims to investigate whether the predictive performance and behaviour of professional forecasters are different during the COVID-19 pandemic as compared with the global financial crisis of 2008 and normal times. To this end, we use a survey of professional forecasters in Singapore collated by the central bank to analyse the forecasting records for GDP growth and CPI inflation for the period 2000Q1–2021Q4. We first examine the point forecasts to document the extent of forecast failure during the two crises and explore various explanations for it, such as leader-following and herding behaviour. Then, using percentile-based summary measures of probability distribution forecasts, we study how the degree of consensus and extent of subjective uncertainty among forecasters were affected by crisis conditions. A trend break is observed in the subjective uncertainty associated with growth projections after the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. In contrast, both subjective uncertainty and the degree of consensus in inflation projections were essentially unchanged in crises, suggesting that the short-term inflation expectations of forecasters were strongly anchored.

The Stabilizing Effects of Publishing Strategic Central Bank Projections

AbstractExpectations are among the main driving forces for economic dynamics. Therefore, managing expectations has become a primary objective for monetary policy seeking to stabilize the business cycle. In this paper, we study whether central banks can manage private-sector expectations by means of publishing one-period ahead inflation projections in a New Keynesian learning-to-forecast experiment. Subjects in the experiment observe these projections along with the historic development of the economy and subsequently submit their own one-period ahead inflation forecasts. In this context, we find that the central bank can significantly manage private-sector expectations and that this management strongly supports monetary policy in stabilizing the economy. Moreover, published central bank inflation projections drastically reduce the probability of a deflationary spiral after strong negative shocks to the economy.

The FOMC's New Individual Economic Projections and Macroeconomic Theories

This paper examines whether the individual economic projections made by the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) policymakers are consistent with macroeconomic theories: Okun’s law, the Phillips curve, and the Taylor rule. By analyzing the FOMC’s individual economic projections between 2007 and 2014, I find that they are consistent with Okun’s law, revealing a significantly negative relationship between unemployment and output growth projections. On the other hand, the relationship between inflation and unemployment projections associated with the Phillips curve is much weaker and more dispersed. The results on the FOMC’s reaction function, the Taylor rule, are mixed: The response of the projections of the federal funds rate against the inflation gap projections—the deviation of inflation projections from the target—is significantly positive, whereas the response against the corresponding output gap projections varies depending on the specification.

Central Bank Communications and Professional Forecasts: Evidence From India

We analyze the influence of qualitative and quantitative communications of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on inflation expectations of professional forecasters and draw out implications for policy. Estimating Carroll-type epidemiological models of expectation formation under information rigidities, we get a large speed of adjustment of professional forecasters’ expectations. Analysis of the determinants of inflation forecasts, inflation surprises, and forecaster disagreement reveals significant influence of quantitative RBI communications in the form of inflation projections. This effect is prominent for shorter-horizon forecasts and after adoption of flexible inflation targeting. Macroeconomic fundamentals like lagged inflation and repo rate also significantly influence inflation forecasts. Choice of words in the RBI monetary policy statements has more impact after October 2016, when the monetary policy committee became the decision-making body. JEL Classification: E31, E52, E58

Evaluating the Eurosystem/ECB staff macroeconomic projections: The first 20 years

AbstractThis work marks a thorough analysis of a confidential real‐time dataset consisting of the Eurosystem/ECB staff macroeconomic projections since their existence. By applying techniques widely employed in the literature of forecast evaluation, we examine their statistical properties with a special emphasis on optimality and rationality. Long‐term GDP projections are biased (tendency to overpredict), do not fully account for available information, and are outperformed by private sector expectations. Inflation projections are optimal and rational on a full‐sample analysis; however, subsample analysis reveals two distinct periods with a persistent and significant bias. Before the financial crisis inflation was persistently underpredicted, while in post‐2013, the bias reverses into overprediction.

FORMATION OF COMPOSITE GLOBAL COMMODITY PRICES AS AN INFLATION INDICATOR FOR EAST JAVA

With the average contribution of imports to Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) in the last five years reaching 19.1%, the dynamics of global commodity prices also influence the economic performance of East Java, including the movement of inflation. A composite indicator of global commodity prices is needed to find out the impact of changes in various global commodity prices on inflation in East Java. By adopting the Bank Indonesia methodology in forming a composite global price known as the Imported Inflation Price Index (IHIM) which has considered the method of forming a global composite price created by the IMF (IMF Commodity Price Index), the compilation of East Java global price composites also examines the accuracy of commodity selection and aspects of data availability. The selected global price composite for East Java is a composite of seven global commodities which include food (wheat, soybeans, corn and CPO) and non-food (iron, gold and oil). These are two aspects determining the relative weight, namely (I) the import portion of the total input based on the Input-Output table and (ii) the commodity weight of derivatives in the East Java Consumer Price Index (IHK) basket. Furthermore, with OLS regression, the composite of East Java global commodity prices affects the core-traded inflation movement in East Java. Thus, the composite of global commodity prices in East Java can be used as an indicator of East Java inflation projections, especially core-traded inflation. This study, in general, will also examine the effect of the exchange rate impact on the movement of core inflation, especially traded groups in East Java. Based on the regression results it is known that the impact of the exchange rate movement on core traded inflation in East Java is more significant than the effect of world commodity price movements.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Autism Tsunami: the Impact of Rising Prevalence on the Societal Cost of Autism in the United States

The cost of ASD in the U.S. is estimated using a forecast model that for the first time accounts for the true historical increase in ASD. Model inputs include ASD prevalence, census population projections, six cost categories, ten age brackets, inflation projections, and three future prevalence scenarios. Future ASD costs increase dramatically: total base-case costs of $223 (175–271) billion/year are estimated in 2020; $589 billion/year in 2030, $1.36 trillion/year in 2040, and $5.54 (4.29–6.78) trillion/year by 2060, with substantial potential savings through ASD prevention. Rising prevalence, the shift from child to adult-dominated costs, the transfer of costs from parents onto government, and the soaring total costs raise pressing policy questions and demand an urgent focus on prevention strategies.

Short-term inflation projections model and its assessment in Latvia

ABSTRACT This paper builds a short-term inflation projections (STIP) model for Latvia. The model is designed to forecast highly disaggregated consumer prices using cointegrated ARDL approach of [Pesaran, M., & Shin, Y. (1998). An Autoregressive Distributed Lag Modelling Approach to Cointegration Analysis. Econometric Society Monographs, 31, 371–413.]. We assess the forecast accuracy of STIP model using out-of-sample forecast exercise and show that our model outperforms both aggregated and disaggregated AR(1) benchmarks. Across inflation components, the forecast accuracy gains are 20–30% forecasting 3 months ahead and 15–55% forecasting 12 months ahead.

Exchange rate pass-through in the Caucasus and Central Asia

This article estimates the extent and speed of exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) in seven Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) countries using monthly data over the January 1995–May 2020 period. The estimations are performed using the local projections method. We find that the average pass-through in the CCA is about 10% on impact and about 25% after 12 months. There is no evidence of asymmetric ERPT with respect to the size and the sign of exchange rate changes. The pass-through is broadly unchanged in fixed versus floating exchange rate regimes. There has been a downward shift in the speed of ERPT in the aftermath of the global financial crisis as CCA countries have entered a relatively low inflation environment. The pass-through estimates could be used by the CCA monetary authorities for inflation projections. The absence of nonlinearities in the pass-through with respect to the exchange rate regime suggests that transition from fixed to floating exchange rate regimes in the region is not likely to impose additional inflationary costs.

Should central banks communicate uncertainty in their projections?

This paper provides original empirical evidence on the emerging practice by central banks of communicating uncertainty in their inflation projections. We compare the effects of point and density projections in a learning-to-forecast laboratory experiment where participants’ aggregated expectations about one- and two-period-ahead inflation influence macroeconomic dynamics. Precise point projections are more effective at managing inflation expectations. Point projections reduce disagreement and uncertainty while nudging participants to forecast rationally. Supplementing the point projection with a density forecast mutes many of these benefits. Relative to a point projection, density forecasts lead to larger forecast errors, greater uncertainty about own forecasts, and less credibility in the central bank’s projections. We also explore expectation formation in individual-choice environments to understand the motives for responding to projections. Credibility in the projections is significantly lower when strategic considerations are absent, suggesting that projections are primarily effective as a coordination device. Overall, our results suggest that communicating uncertainty through density projections reduces the efficacy of inflation point projections.

The Bias and Efficiency of the ECB Inflation Projections: A State Dependent Analysis

We test for bias and efficiency of the ECB inflation forecasts using a confidential dataset of ECB macroeconomic quarterly projections. We investigate whether the properties of the forecasts depend on the level of inflation, by distinguishing whether the inflation observed by the ECB at the time of forecasting is above or below the target. The forecasts are unbiased and efficient on average, however there is evidence of state dependence. In particular, the ECB tends to overpredict (underpredict) inflation at intermediate forecast horizons when inflation is below (above) target. The magnitude of the bias is larger when inflation is above the target. These results hold even after accounting for errors in the external assumptions. We also find evidence of inefficiency, in the form of underreaction to news, but only when inflation is above the target. Our findings bear important implications for the ECB forecasting process and ultimately for its communication strategy.

Inflation targeting and financial conditions: UK monetary policy during the great moderation and financial crisis

In this paper, we investigate the interest rate setting behaviour of the Bank of England (BoE) over the 16 year period covering both the Great Moderation and the 2008−9 Global Financial Crisis and Great Recession. We contribute to the literature by using the BoE’s own inflation projections in our estimations. Also, we develop a novel measure of the output gap to encapsulate the array of real variables that the Monetary Policy Committee of the BoE reviews. In order to assess the BoE’s responsiveness to financial markets, we estimate a new financial conditions index that covers a wide range of financial indicators that feature in the Inflation Report. Our study provides some new insights into the BoE’s monetary policy behaviour. We show that the BoE was concerned not only with price stability but also output, employment and financial conditions during the Great Moderation. In contrast to previous studies, we find that the BoE responds relatively less to financial conditions and relatively more to inflation projections when the 2008−9 Global Financial Crisis and Great Recession period is included.

Monetary Policy Surprises and Inflation Expectation Dispersion

Anchoring of inflation expectations is of paramount importance for central banks’ ability to deliver stable inflation and minimize price dispersion. Relying on daily interest rates and inflation forecasts from major financial institutions in the United States, we calculate monetary policy surprises of individual analysts as the unexpected changes in the federal funds rate before the meetings of the Federal Reserve Board. We then assess the effect of monetary policy surprises on the dispersion of inflation expectations, a proxy for the extent of anchoring, which is based on the same analysts’ inflation projections submit-ted after the Fed meetings. With an identification strategy that hinges on a tight window around the Fed meetings, we find that monetary policy surprises lead to an increase in the dispersion of inflation expectations up to nine months after the policy meeting. We rationalize these results with a partial equilibrium model that features rational expectations and sticky information. When we allow the degree of information rigidity to depend on the realization of firm-specific shocks, the theoretical results are qualitatively consistent and quantitatively close to the empirical evidence.

Exchange Rate Pass-Through in the Caucasus and Central Asia

This paper estimates the extent and speed of exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) in seven Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) countries using monthly data over the January 1995–May 2020 period. The estimations are performed using the local projections method. We find that the average pass-through in the CCA is about 10 percent on impact and about 25 percent after 12 months. There is no evidence of asymmetric ERPT with respect to the size and the sign of exchange rate changes. The pass-through is broadly unchanged in fixed versus floating exchange rate regimes. There has been a downward shift in the speed of ERPT in the aftermath of the global financial crisis as CCA countries have entered a relatively low inflation environment. The pass-through estimates could be used by the CCA monetary authorities for inflation projections. The absence of non-linearities in the pass-through with respect to the exchange rate regime suggests that transition from fixed to floating exchange rate regimes in the region is not likely to impose additional inflationary costs.

Should Central Banks Communicate Uncertainty in Their Projections?

This paper provides original empirical evidence on the emerging practice by central banks of communicating uncertainty in their inflation projections. We compare the effects of point and density projections in a learning-to-forecast laboratory experiment where participants' aggregated expectations about one- and two-period-ahead inflation influence macroeconomic dynamics. Precise point projections are more effective at managing inflation expectations. Point projections reduce disagreement and uncertainty while nudging participants to forecast rationally. Supplementing the point projection with a density forecast mutes many of these benefits. Relative to a point projection, density forecasts lead to larger forecast errors, greater uncertainty about own forecasts, and less credibility in the central bank's projections. We also explore expectation formation in individual-choice environments to understand the motives for responding to projections. Credibility in the projections is significantly lower when strategic considerations are absent, suggesting that projections are primarily effective as a coordination device. Overall, our results suggest that communicating uncertainty through density projections reduces the efficacy of inflation point projections.