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Forecasting inflation and output: comparing data-rich models with simple rules

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William T. Gavin
Kevin L. Kliesen

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Abstract

Decision makers, both public and private, use forecasts of economic growth and inflation to make plans and implement policies. In many situations, reasonably good forecasts can be made with simple rules of thumb that are extrapolations of a single data series. In principle, information about other economic indicators should be useful in forecasting a particular series like inflation or output. Including too many variables makes a model unwieldy and not including enough can increase forecast error. A key problem is deciding which other series to include. Recently, studies have shown that Dynamic Factor Models (DFMs) may provide a general solution to this problem. The key is that these models use a large data set to extract a few common factors (thus, the term #data-rich*). This paper uses a monthly DFM model to forecast inflation and output growth at horizons of 3, 12 and 24 months ahead. These forecasts are then compared to simple forecasting rules.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in its series Working Papers with number 2006-054.

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Date of creation: 2006
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2006-054

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Keywords: Inflation (Finance) Forecasting

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
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.:
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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. Kevin L. Kliesen, 2008. "Oil and the U.S. macroeconomy: an update and a simple forecasting exercise," Working Papers 2008-009, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
  2. Eickmeier, Sandra & Ziegler, Christina, 2006. "How good are dynamic factor models at forecasting output and inflation? A meta-analytic approach," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2006,42, Deutsche Bundesbank, Research Centre. [Downloadable!]
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