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Improving inflation forecasts in the medium to long term

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  • Saeed Zaman

Abstract

To accurately forecast the future rate of inflation, it is imperative to account for inflation?s underlying trend. This is especially important for medium- to long-run forecasts. In this Commentary I demonstrate a simple but powerful technique for incorporating this trend into standard statistical time series models and report the gains to accuracy. I find that incorporating the trend by modeling inflation as gap from an estimated underlying trend leads to substantial gains in forecast accuracy of about 20 percent to 30 percent, two to three years out.

Suggested Citation

  • Saeed Zaman, 2013. "Improving inflation forecasts in the medium to long term," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Nov.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcec:y:2013:i:nov15:n:2013-16
    DOI: 10.26509/frbc-ec-201316
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kenneth Beauchemin, 2011. "Shocks and the economic outlook," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue June.
    2. Clark, Todd E., 2011. "Real-Time Density Forecasts From Bayesian Vector Autoregressions With Stochastic Volatility," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 29(3), pages 327-341.
    3. Kozicki, Sharon & Tinsley, P. A., 2001. "Term structure views of monetary policy under alternative models of agent expectations," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 25(1-2), pages 149-184, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tallman, Ellis W. & Zaman, Saeed, 2020. "Combining survey long-run forecasts and nowcasts with BVAR forecasts using relative entropy," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 373-398.
    2. Bańbura, Marta & Bobeica, Elena, 2023. "Does the Phillips curve help to forecast euro area inflation?," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 364-390.
    3. Bobeica, Elena & Ciccarelli, Matteo & Vansteenkiste, Isabel, 2021. "The changing link between labor cost and price inflation in the United States," Working Paper Series 2583, European Central Bank.
    4. Bobeica, Elena & Ciccarelli, Matteo & Vansteenkiste, Isabel, 2019. "The link between labor cost and price inflation in the euro area," Working Paper Series 2235, European Central Bank.
    5. Richard Ashley & Randal J. Verbrugge, 2019. "The Intermittent Phillips Curve: Finding a Stable (But Persistence-Dependent) Phillips Curve Model Specification," Working Papers 19-09R2, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 14 Feb 2023.
    6. Todd E. Clark & Edward S. Knotek & Saeed Zaman, 2015. "Measuring Inflation Forecast Uncertainty," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, vol. 2015(03), pages 1-6, March.
    7. Tallman, Ellis W. & Zaman, Saeed, 2017. "Forecasting inflation: Phillips curve effects on services price measures," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 442-457.
    8. Edward S. Knotek & Saeed Zaman, 2013. "When Might the Federal Funds Rate Lift Off? Computing the Probabilities of Crossing Unemployment and Inflation Thresholds," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Dec.
    9. Verbrugge, Randal & Zaman, Saeed, 2024. "Improving inflation forecasts using robust measures," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 735-745.
    10. Edward S. Knotek & Saeed Zaman, 2014. "On the Relationships between Wages, Prices, and Economic Activity," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Aug.

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