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Forecasting inflation in an inflation-targeting regime: A role for informative steady-state priors

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  • Beechey, Meredith
  • Österholm, Pär

Abstract

Inflation targeting as a monetary-policy regime is widely associated with an explicit numerical target for the rate of inflation. This paper investigates whether the forecasting performance of Bayesian autoregressive models can be improved by incorporating information about the target. We compare a mean-adjusted specification, which allows an informative prior on the distribution for the steady state of the process, to traditional methodology. We find that the out-of-sample forecasts of the mean-adjusted autoregressive model outperform those of the traditional specification, often by non-trivial amounts, for five early adopters of inflation targeting. It is also noted that as the sample lengthens, the posterior distribution of steady-state inflation narrows more for countries with explicit point targets.

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  • Beechey, Meredith & Österholm, Pär, 2010. "Forecasting inflation in an inflation-targeting regime: A role for informative steady-state priors," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 248-264, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intfor:v:26:y::i:2:p:248-264
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    Cited by:

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    3. P�r Österholm, 2014. "Survey data and short-term forecasts of Swedish GDP growth," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 135-139, January.
    4. Richard K. Crump & Stefano Eusepi & Domenico Giannone & Eric Qian & Argia M. Sbordone, 2021. "A Large Bayesian VAR of the United States Economy," Staff Reports 976, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    5. Helge Berger & Pär Österholm, 2011. "Does Money Growth Granger Cause Inflation in the Euro Area? Evidence from Out‐of‐Sample Forecasts Using Bayesian VARs," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 87(276), pages 45-60, March.
    6. Pär Stockhammar & Pär Österholm, 2018. "Do inflation expectations granger cause inflation?," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 35(2), pages 403-431, August.
    7. Andrés González & Kirstin Hubrich & Timo Teräsvirta, 2009. "Forecasting inflation with gradual regime shifts and exogenous information," CREATES Research Papers 2009-03, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    8. Pär Stockhammar & Pär Österholm, 2016. "Effects of US policy uncertainty on Swedish GDP growth," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 443-462, March.
    9. Jan-Erik Antipin & Farid Jimmy Boumediene & Pär Österholm, 2014. "Forecasting Inflation Using Constant Gain Least Squares," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1-2), pages 2-15, June.
    10. Gustafsson, Peter & Stockhammar, Pär & Österholm, Pär, 2016. "Macroeconomic effects of a decline in housing prices in Sweden," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 242-255.
    11. Raoufina, Karine, 2016. "Forecasting Employment Growth in Sweden Using a Bayesian VAR Model," Working Papers 144, National Institute of Economic Research.
    12. Kristian Jönsson, 2020. "Machine Learning and Nowcasts of Swedish GDP," Journal of Business Cycle Research, Springer;Centre for International Research on Economic Tendency Surveys (CIRET), vol. 16(2), pages 123-134, November.
    13. Österholm, Pär, 2012. "The limited usefulness of macroeconomic Bayesian VARs when estimating the probability of a US recession," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 76-86.
    14. Bo Zhang & Jamie Cross & Na Guo, 2020. "Time-Varying Trend Models for Forecasting Inflation in Australia," Working Papers No 09/2020, Centre for Applied Macro- and Petroleum economics (CAMP), BI Norwegian Business School.
    15. Unn Lindholm & Marcus Mossfeldt & Pär Stockhammar, 2020. "Forecasting inflation in Sweden," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 37(1), pages 39-68, April.
    16. Thomas Jonsson & Pär Österholm, 2012. "The properties of survey-based inflation expectations in Sweden," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 79-94, February.
    17. Dimitrios P. Louzis, 2019. "Steady‐state modeling and macroeconomic forecasting quality," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(2), pages 285-314, March.
    18. Na Guo & Bo Zhang & Jamie L. Cross, 2022. "Time‐varying trend models for forecasting inflation in Australia," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(2), pages 316-330, March.
    19. Nadiia Shapovalenko, 2021. "A BVAR Model for Forecasting Ukrainian Inflation," IHEID Working Papers 05-2021, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    20. Mossfeldt, Marcus & Stockhammar, Pär, 2016. "Forecasting Goods and Services Inflation in Sweden," Working Papers 146, National Institute of Economic Research.
    21. Pär Stockhammar & Pär Österholm, 2017. "The Impact of US Uncertainty Shocks on Small Open Economies," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 347-368, April.
    22. Helge Berger & Pär Österholm, 2011. "Does Money Growth Granger Cause Inflation in the Euro Area? Evidence from Out‐of‐Sample Forecasts Using Bayesian VARs," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 87(276), pages 45-60, March.
    23. Nadiia Shapovalenko, 2021. "A BVAR Model for Forecasting Ukrainian Inflation and GDP," Visnyk of the National Bank of Ukraine, National Bank of Ukraine, issue 251, pages 14-36.
    24. Dimitrios P. Louzis, 2016. "Macroeconomic forecasting and structural changes in steady states," Working Papers 204, Bank of Greece.

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