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A First Assessment of Some Measures of Core Inflation for the Euro Area

Author

Listed:
  • Vega Juan-Luis

    (European Central Bank,Frankfurt pe Main, Germany)

  • Wynne Mark A.

    (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas,Dallas, United States of America)

Abstract

Core inflation plays an important role in the deliberations of monetary policy-makers. In this paper we evaluate a number of measures of core inflation constructed using euro-area data. In addition to the traditional exclusion-type core measures, we examine two newer ones, documenting their properties and evaluating their performance in terms of their ability to track underlying or trend inflation in real time. We focus on core measures derived from the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) as the European Central Bank has chosen to define its mandate for price stability in terms of this index, and because this is the only index of consumer prices that is compiled in a comparable manner across all members of the European Union. We document significant excess kurtosis in the cross-section distribution of price changes in the euro area, and show that several categories of prices are more volatile than those typically excluded from traditional measures of core inflation. Contrary to what one might expect, traditional measures of core inflation are not significantly less volatile than headline measures.We document the superior performance of alternative measures of core inflation in tracking trend inflation on average, but show that none of the various measures of core gave significant advance warning of the pickup in trend inflation at the beginning of 1999.

Suggested Citation

  • Vega Juan-Luis & Wynne Mark A., 2003. "A First Assessment of Some Measures of Core Inflation for the Euro Area," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 4(3), pages 269-306, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:germec:v:4:y:2003:i:3:p:269-306
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-0475.00082
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    Cited by:

    1. Emil Stavrev, 2010. "Measures of underlying inflation in the euro area: assessment and role for informing monetary policy," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 217-239, February.
    2. Felipe Córdova & María Carolina Grünwald & Michael Pedersen, 2008. "Alternative Measures of Core Inflation in Chile," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 471, Central Bank of Chile.
    3. Ivan Roberts, 2005. "Underlying Inflation: Concepts, Measurement and Performance," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2005-05, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    4. Jamie Armour, 2006. "An Evaluation of Core Inflation Measures," Staff Working Papers 06-10, Bank of Canada.
    5. Carlomagno, Guillermo & Fornero, Jorge & Sansone, Andrés, 2023. "A proposal for constructing and evaluating core inflation measures," Latin American Journal of Central Banking (previously Monetaria), Elsevier, vol. 4(3).
    6. Guillermo Carlomagno & Jorge Fornero & Andrés Sansone, 2021. "Toward a general framework for constructing and evaluating core inflation measures," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 913, Central Bank of Chile.
    7. Moons, Cindy & Garretsen, Harry & van Aarle, Bas & Fornero, Jorge, 2007. "Monetary policy in the New-Keynesian model: An application to the Euro Area," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 879-902.
    8. repec:bla:germec:v:10:y:2009:i::p:139-164 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Abdul Aleem & Amine Lahiani, 2011. "Estimation and evaluation of core inflation measures," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(25), pages 3619-3629.
    10. Adrian Armas & Lucy Vallejos & Marco Vega, 2010. "Measurement of price indices used by the central bank of Peru," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Monetary policy and the measurement of inflation: prices, wages and expectations, volume 49, pages 259-283, Bank for International Settlements.
    11. Maria Arrazola & Jose de Hevia, 2008. "A simple inflation indicator for the euro zone," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(18), pages 2387-2394.
    12. Mick Silver, 2006. "Core Inflation Measures and Statistical Issues in Choosing Among Them," IMF Working Papers 2006/097, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Janet Koech & Mark Wynne, 2013. "Core Import Price Inflation in the United States," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 717-730, September.
    14. Md Shahiduzzaman, 2009. "Measuring Core Inflation in Bangladesh: The Choice of Alternative Methods," Bangladesh Development Studies, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), vol. 32(1), pages 23-44.
    15. Liam J. A. Lenten, 2010. "Bananas and petrol: further evidence on the forecasting accuracy of the ABS 'headline' and 'underlying' rates of inflation," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 556-572.
    16. repec:rza:wpaper:197 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Michael Pedersen, 2006. "An Alternative Measure of Core Inflation," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 366, Central Bank of Chile.
    18. Daniel Komlan Fiodendji, 2012. "Should Canadian Monetary Policy Respond to Asset Prices? Evidence from a Structural Model," Working Papers 1209E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    19. Nicholas Apergis & Stephen M. Miller & Alexandros Panethimitakis & Athanassios Vamvakidis, 2005. "Inflation Targeting and Output Growth: Evidence from Aggregate European Data," Working papers 2005-06, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    20. Komlan, Fiodendji, 2013. "The asymmetric reaction of monetary policy to inflation and the output gap: Evidence from Canada," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 911-923.

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