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The Information Content of the Inflation Term Structure

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Francis Breedon
Jag Chadha

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Abstract

This paper examines the information content of inflation forecasts derived using index- linked and conventional bonds. The paper finds that the derived inflation term structure (ITS) gives a somewhat better indication of the bond market's inflation expectation than can be derived using either the nominal term structure or a variant employing strong assumptions about real interest rate behaviour. The inflation forecasts of the ITS also seem at least as good at forecasting future changes in inflation as forecasts derived from macroeconometric models. These characteristics of the ITS and its timeliness tend to make its inflation forecasts a useful addition to policy analysis. Because the real term structure tends to underpredict the level of future real interest rates, index-linked bonds have proved, ex post, to be cheap funding for the UK government. But we cannot be sure whether this underprediction results from an inflation risk premium or expectational error and also cannot know whether this overprediction will persist.

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Paper provided by Bank of England in its series Bank of England working papers with number 75.

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Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:75

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

  1. Soderlind, P., 1995. "Forward Interest Rates as Indicators of Inflation Expectations," Papers 594, Stockholm - International Economic Studies.
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  2. John Y. Campbell & Robert J. Shiller, 1996. "A Scorecard for Indexed Government Debt," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1125, Cowles Foundation, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Bennett T. McCallum, 1994. "Monetary Policy and the Term Structure of Interest Rates," NBER Working Papers 4938, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. John Y. Campbell & Robert J. Shiller, 1996. "A Scorecard for Indexed Government Data," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1758, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
  5. Frederic S. Mishkin, 1990. "What Does the Term Structure Tell Us About Future Inflation?," NBER Working Papers 2626, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. N. Gregory Mankiw, 1986. "The Term Structure of Interest Rates Revisited," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 17(1986-1), pages 61-110. [Downloadable!]
  7. Mishkin, Frederic S, 1990. "The Information in the Longer Maturity Term Structure about Future Inflation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 105(3), pages 815-28, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Frankel, Jeffrey A & Lown, Cara S, 1994. "An Indicator of Future Inflation Extracted from the Steepness of the Interest Rate Yield Curve along Its Entire Length," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 109(2), pages 517-30, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Campbell, John Y & Shiller, Robert J, 1991. "Yield Spreads and Interest Rate Movements: A Bird's Eye View," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 58(3), pages 495-514, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Frankel, Jeffrey A, 1982. "A Technique for Extracting a Measure of Expected Inflation from the Interest Rate Term Structure," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(1), pages 135-42, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Robert J. Barro, 1995. "Optimal Debt Management," NBER Working Papers 5327, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Fischer, Stanley, 1975. "The Demand for Index Bonds," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(3), pages 509-34, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Kandel, Shmuel & Ofer, Aharon R & Sarig, Oded, 1996. " Real Interest Rates and Inflation: An Ex-Ante Empirical Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(1), pages 205-25, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Levin, Eric J & Copeland, Laurence S, 1993. "Reading the Message from the U.K. Indexed Bond Market: Real Interest Rates, Expected Inflation and the Risk Premium," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 61(0), pages 13-34, Suppl..
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Christian Mose Nielsen, 2005. "The information content of the term structure of interest rates about future inflation – an illustration of the importance of accounting for a time-varying real interest rate and inflation risk prem," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2005 86, Money Macro and Finance Research Group. [Downloadable!]
  2. Viktor Kotlán, 2001. "Monetary policy and the term structure of interest rates in a small open economy - a model framework approach," Macroeconomics 0110003, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  3. Christensen, Ian & Frédéric Dion & Christopher Reid, 2004. "Real Return Bonds, Inflation Expectations, and the Break-Even Inflation Rate," Working Papers 04-43, Bank of Canada. [Downloadable!]
  4. Chadha, J.S. & Charles Nolan, 2002. "Inflation and Price Level Targeting in a New Keynesian Model," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0203, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Sharon Kozicki & P.A. Tinsley, 2006. "Survey-Based Estimates of the Term Structure of Expected U.S. Inflation," Working Papers 06-46, Bank of Canada. [Downloadable!]
  6. Peter S. Spiro, 2003. "Evidence on inflation expectations from Canadian real return bonds," Macroeconomics 0312004, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  7. J. Huston McCulloch, 2001. "The Inflation Premium implicit in the US Real and Nominal," Computing in Economics and Finance 2001 210, Society for Computational Economics. [Downloadable!]
  8. Juan Angel Garcia & Adrian van Rixtel, 2007. "Inflation-linked bonds from a central bank perspective," Banco de España Occasional Papers 0705, Banco de España. [Downloadable!]
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