IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmathe/v9y2021i19p2486-d649726.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Recurrent Neural Networks Predict Inflation in Euro Zone as Good as Professional Forecasters?

Author

Listed:
  • Tea Šestanović

    (Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism, University of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia
    Current address: Cvite Fiskovića 5, 21000 Split, Croatia.
    Both authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Josip Arnerić

    (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
    Both authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

This paper investigates whether a specific type of a recurrent neural network, in particular Jordan neural network (JNN), captures the expected inflation better than commonly used feedforward neural networks and traditional parametric time-series models. It also considers competing survey-based and model-based expected inflation towards ex-post actual inflation to find whose predictions are more accurate; predictions from survey respondents or forecasting modelers. Further, it proposes neural network modelling strategy when dealing with nonstationary time-series which exhibit long-memory property and nonlinear dependence with respect to lagged inputs and exogenous inputs as well. Following this strategy, overfitting problem was reduced until no improvement in forecasting accuracy of expected inflation is achieved. The main finding is that JNN predicts inflation in euro zone quite accurately within forecasting horizon of 2 years. Regarding rational expectation principle we have found a set of demand-pull and cost-push inflation characteristics as exogenous inputs which helps in reducing overfitting problem of recurrent neural network even more. The sample includes euro zone aggregated monthly observations from January 2000 to December 2019. The results also confirm that inflation expectations obtained from JNN are consistent with Survey of professional forecasters (SPF), and thus, monetary policy makers can use JNN as a complementary tool in shortcomings of other inflation expectations measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Tea Šestanović & Josip Arnerić, 2021. "Can Recurrent Neural Networks Predict Inflation in Euro Zone as Good as Professional Forecasters?," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(19), pages 1-13, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:9:y:2021:i:19:p:2486-:d:649726
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/19/2486/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/9/19/2486/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Binner, Jane M. & Elger, C. Thomas & Nilsson, Birger & Tepper, Jonathan A., 2006. "Predictable non-linearities in U.S. inflation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 323-328, December.
    2. Gert Wehinger, 2000. "Causes of Inflation in Europe, the United States and Japan: Some Lessons for Maintaining Price Stability in the EMU from a Structural VAR Approach," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 27(1), pages 83-107, March.
    3. Terasvirta, Timo & Tjostheim, Dag & Granger, Clive W. J., 2010. "Modelling Nonlinear Economic Time Series," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199587155.
    4. Terasvirta, Timo & van Dijk, Dick & Medeiros, Marcelo C., 2005. "Linear models, smooth transition autoregressions, and neural networks for forecasting macroeconomic time series: A re-examination," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 755-774.
    5. Dräger, Lena & Lamla, Michael J. & Pfajfar, Damjan, 2016. "Are survey expectations theory-consistent? The role of central bank communication and news," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 84-111.
    6. Bharat Trehan, 2015. "Survey Measures of Expected Inflation and the Inflation Process," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(1), pages 207-222, February.
    7. M. Ali Choudhary & Adnan Haider, 2012. "Neural network models for inflation forecasting: an appraisal," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(20), pages 2631-2635, July.
    8. Anders Bredahl Kock & Timo Teräsvirta, 2016. "Forecasting Macroeconomic Variables Using Neural Network Models and Three Automated Model Selection Techniques," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(8-10), pages 1753-1779, December.
    9. Ueda, Kozo, 2010. "Determinants of households' inflation expectations in Japan and the United States," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 503-518, December.
    10. Mrs. Hanan Morsy & Ms. Florence Jaumotte, 2012. "Determinants of Inflation in the Euro Area: The Role of Labor and Product Market Institutions," IMF Working Papers 2012/037, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Nakamura, Emi, 2005. "Inflation forecasting using a neural network," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 373-378, March.
    12. Timo Teräsvirta & Chien‐Fu Lin & Clive W. J. Granger, 1993. "Power Of The Neural Network Linearity Test," Journal of Time Series Analysis, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 209-220, March.
    13. Szafranek, Karol, 2019. "Bagged neural networks for forecasting Polish (low) inflation," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 1042-1059.
    14. Marcos Álvarez-Díaz & Rangan Gupta, 2016. "Forecasting US consumer price index: does nonlinearity matter?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(46), pages 4462-4475, October.
    15. Jane Binner & Rakesh Bissoondeeal & Thomas Elger & Alicia Gazely & Andrew Mullineux, 2005. "A comparison of linear forecasting models and neural networks: an application to Euro inflation and Euro Divisia," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(6), pages 665-680.
    16. Marcelo C. Medeiros & Gabriel F. R. Vasconcelos & Álvaro Veiga & Eduardo Zilberman, 2021. "Forecasting Inflation in a Data-Rich Environment: The Benefits of Machine Learning Methods," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 98-119, January.
    17. Kuan, Chung-Ming & Liu, Tung, 1995. "Forecasting Exchange Rates Using Feedforward and Recurrent Neural Networks," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(4), pages 347-364, Oct.-Dec..
    18. Hewamalage, Hansika & Bergmeir, Christoph & Bandara, Kasun, 2021. "Recurrent Neural Networks for Time Series Forecasting: Current status and future directions," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 388-427.
    19. Gabriel Fagan & Julian Morgan (ed.), 2005. "Econometric Models of the Euro-area Central Banks," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3918.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Simionescu, Mihaela, 2022. "Econometrics of sentiments- sentometrics and machine learning: The improvement of inflation predictions in Romania using sentiment analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tea Šestanović & Josip Arnerić, 2021. "Neural network structure identification in inflation forecasting," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 62-79, January.
    2. Szafranek, Karol, 2019. "Bagged neural networks for forecasting Polish (low) inflation," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 1042-1059.
    3. Anna Almosova & Niek Andresen, 2023. "Nonlinear inflation forecasting with recurrent neural networks," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(2), pages 240-259, March.
    4. Macias, Paweł & Stelmasiak, Damian & Szafranek, Karol, 2023. "Nowcasting food inflation with a massive amount of online prices," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 809-826.
    5. Kock, Anders Bredahl & Teräsvirta, Timo, 2014. "Forecasting performances of three automated modelling techniques during the economic crisis 2007–2009," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 616-631.
    6. Barkan, Oren & Benchimol, Jonathan & Caspi, Itamar & Cohen, Eliya & Hammer, Allon & Koenigstein, Noam, 2023. "Forecasting CPI inflation components with Hierarchical Recurrent Neural Networks," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1145-1162.
    7. Ricardo P. Masini & Marcelo C. Medeiros & Eduardo F. Mendes, 2023. "Machine learning advances for time series forecasting," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 76-111, February.
    8. M. Ali Choudhary & Adnan Haider, 2012. "Neural network models for inflation forecasting: an appraisal," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(20), pages 2631-2635, July.
    9. Marcos Álvarez-Díaz & Rangan Gupta, 2015. "Forecasting the US CPI: Does Nonlinearity Matter?," Working Papers 201512, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    10. Muhammad Nadim Hanif & Khurrum S. Mughal & Javed Iqbal, 2018. "A Thick ANN Model for Forecasting Inflation," SBP Working Paper Series 99, State Bank of Pakistan, Research Department.
    11. Arnerić Josip & Poklepović Tea & Teai Juin Wen, 2018. "Neural Network Approach in Forecasting Realized Variance Using High-Frequency Data," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 9(2), pages 18-34, July.
    12. Shovon Sengupta & Tanujit Chakraborty & Sunny Kumar Singh, 2023. "Forecasting CPI inflation under economic policy and geo-political uncertainties," Papers 2401.00249, arXiv.org.
    13. Anders Bredahl Kock & Timo Teräsvirta, 2016. "Forecasting Macroeconomic Variables Using Neural Network Models and Three Automated Model Selection Techniques," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(8-10), pages 1753-1779, December.
    14. Sabyasachi Kar & Amaani Bashir & Mayank Jain, 2021. "New Approaches to Forecasting Growth and Inflation: Big Data and Machine Learning," IEG Working Papers 446, Institute of Economic Growth.
    15. Dbouk, Wassim & Jamali, Ibrahim, 2018. "Predicting daily oil prices: Linear and non-linear models," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 149-165.
    16. Galvão, Ana Beatriz, 2013. "Changes in predictive ability with mixed frequency data," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 395-410.
    17. Philippe Goulet Coulombe & Maxime Leroux & Dalibor Stevanovic & Stéphane Surprenant, 2022. "How is machine learning useful for macroeconomic forecasting?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(5), pages 920-964, August.
    18. Todd E. Clark & Florian Huber & Gary Koop & Massimiliano Marcellino, 2022. "Forecasting US Inflation Using Bayesian Nonparametric Models," Papers 2202.13793, arXiv.org.
    19. Emilio Zanetti Chini, 2013. "Generalizing smooth transition autoregressions," CREATES Research Papers 2013-32, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    20. Snezana Eminidou & Marios Zachariadis & Elena Andreou, 2020. "Inflation Expectations and Monetary Policy Surprises," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(1), pages 306-339, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:9:y:2021:i:19:p:2486-:d:649726. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.