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Start Spreading the News: News Sentiment and Economic Activity in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Kim Nguyen

    (Reserve Bank of Australia)

  • Gianni La Cava

    (Reserve Bank of Australia)

Abstract

In times of crisis, real-time indicators of economic activity are a critical input to timely and well-targeted policy responses. The COVID-19 pandemic is the most recent example of a crisis where events with little historical precedent played out rapidly and unpredictably. To address this need for real-time indicators we develop a new indicator of 'news sentiment' based on a combination of text analysis, machine learning and newspaper articles. The news sentiment index complements other timely economic indicators and has the advantage of potentially being updated on a daily basis. It captures key macroeconomic events, such as economic downturns, and typically moves ahead of survey-based measures of sentiment. Changes in sentiment expressed in monetary policy-related news can also partly explain unexpected changes in monetary policy. This suggests that news captures important, but unobserved, information about the risks to the RBA's forecasts that the RBA responds to when setting interest rates. An event study in the days around monetary policy decisions suggests that an unexpected tightening in monetary policy is associated with weaker news sentiment, though the effects on sentiment are temporary and not particularly strong.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim Nguyen & Gianni La Cava, 2020. "Start Spreading the News: News Sentiment and Economic Activity in Australia," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2020-08, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    • Handle: RePEc:rba:rbardp:rdp2020-08
    DOI: 10.47688/rdp2020-08
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Deimante Teresiene & Greta Keliuotyte-Staniuleniene & Yiyi Liao & Rasa Kanapickiene & Ruihui Pu & Siyan Hu & Xiao-Guang Yue, 2021. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Consumer and Business Confidence Indicators," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-23, April.
    2. Samuel Shamiri & Leanne Ngai & Peter Lake & Yin Shan & Amee McMillan & Therese Smith & Kishor Sharma, 2022. "Nowcasting the Australian Labour Market at Disaggregated Levels," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 55(3), pages 389-404, September.
    3. Beomseok Seo & Younghwan Lee & Hyungbae Cho, 2024. "Measuring News Sentiment of Korea Using Transformer," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 40, pages 149-176.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    news media; sentiment; economic activity; text analysis; machine learning;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

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