IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bdm/wpaper/2025-13.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inflation volatility across advanced and emerging economies during the COVID-19 pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Lenin Arango-Castillo
  • María José Orraca
  • Regina Briseño

Abstract

Using a sample of advanced and emerging economies, this paper studies the volatility of three inflation measures from January 2001 to March 2023, employing variants of the GARCH model that account for the sign, magnitude, and persistence of shocks. The results show that the inflation surge during the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with increased volatility in several countries. However, this is not the norm in the studied period. Descriptive evidence indicates that a strong positive correlation between inflation and its volatility within countries was observed at the beginning of the Global Financial Crisis and during the pandemic, two periods characterized by global inflationary pressures and high commodity prices, whereas in other periods, this correlation is nonexistent or weak.

Suggested Citation

  • Lenin Arango-Castillo & María José Orraca & Regina Briseño, 2025. "Inflation volatility across advanced and emerging economies during the COVID-19 pandemic," Working Papers 2025-13, Banco de México.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdm:wpaper:2025-13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.banxico.org.mx/publications-and-press/banco-de-mexico-working-papers/%7BA878E916-1E6B-D82B-D52D-784A84C1FBBA%7D.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schwert, G William, 2002. "Tests for Unit Roots: A Monte Carlo Investigation," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 5-17, January.
    2. Jongrim Ha & M. Ayhan Kose & Franziska Ohnsorge, 2019. "Inflation in Emerging and Developing Economies," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 30657, April.
    3. Andrea Carriero & Francesco Corsello & Massimiliano Marcellino, 2022. "The global component of inflation volatility," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(4), pages 700-721, June.
    4. Yacine Aït-Sahalia & Felix Matthys & Emilio Osambela & Ronnie Sircar, 2021. "When Uncertainty and Volatility Are Disconnected: Implications for Asset Pricing and Portfolio Performance," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2021-063, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    5. Grier, Kevin B. & Perry, Mark J., 1998. "On inflation and inflation uncertainty in the G7 countries," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 671-689, August.
    6. Harding, Martín & Lindé, Jesper & Trabandt, Mathias, 2023. "Understanding post-COVID inflation dynamics," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(S), pages 101-118.
    7. Broto, Carmen, 2011. "Inflation targeting in Latin America: Empirical analysis using GARCH models," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 1424-1434, May.
    8. María Dolores Gadea & Laura Mayoral, 2006. "The Persistence of Inflation in OECD Countries: A Fractionally Integrated Approach," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 2(1), March.
    9. Saten Kumar & Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Olivier Coibion, 2023. "The Effect of Macroeconomic Uncertainty on Firm Decisions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(4), pages 1297-1332, July.
    10. John Thornton, 2007. "The Relationship between Inflation and Inflation Uncertainty in Emerging Market Economies," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(4), pages 858-870, April.
    11. Jiranyakul, Komain & Opiela, Timothy P., 2010. "Inflation and inflation uncertainty in the ASEAN-5 economies," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 105-112, April.
    12. Nicholas Bloom, 2009. "The Impact of Uncertainty Shocks," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(3), pages 623-685, May.
    13. Bollerslev, Tim, 1986. "Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 307-327, April.
    14. Ruth Judson & Athanasios Orphanides, 1999. "Inflation, Volatility and Growth," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(1), pages 117-138, April.
    15. David S. Jacks & Kevin H. O'Rourke & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2011. "Commodity Price Volatility and World Market Integration since 1700," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(3), pages 800-813, August.
    16. De Santis, Roberto A. & Van der Veken, Wouter, 2022. "Deflationary financial shocks and inflationary uncertainty shocks: an SVAR Investigation," Working Paper Series 2727, European Central Bank.
    17. Kwiatkowski, Denis & Phillips, Peter C. B. & Schmidt, Peter & Shin, Yongcheol, 1992. "Testing the null hypothesis of stationarity against the alternative of a unit root : How sure are we that economic time series have a unit root?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1-3), pages 159-178.
    18. repec:bla:intfin:v:2:y:1999:i:1:p:117-38 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Kose, M. Ayhan & Ha, Jongrim & Ohnsorge, Franziska, 2019. "Global Inflation Synchronization," CEPR Discussion Papers 13600, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Dejan Zivkov & Slavica Manic & Jasmina Duraskovic & Jelena Kovacevic, 2019. "Bidirectional Nexus between Inflation and Inflation Uncertainty in the Asian Emerging Markets – The GARCH-in-Mean Approach," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 69(6), pages 580-599, December.
    21. Eric Eisenstat & Rodney W. Strachan, 2016. "Modelling Inflation Volatility," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(5), pages 805-820, August.
    22. Garriga, Ana Carolina & Rodriguez, Cesar M., 2023. "Central bank independence and inflation volatility in developing countries," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1320-1341.
    23. S. Fountas & A. Ioannidis & M. Karanasos, 2004. "Inflation, Inflation Uncertainty and a Common European Monetary Policy," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 72(2), pages 221-242, March.
    24. Bartosz Maćkowiak & Filip Matějka & Mirko Wiederholt, 2023. "Rational Inattention: A Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 226-273, March.
    25. Bowdler, Christopher & Nunziata, Luca, 2006. "Trade Openness and Inflation Episodes in the OECD," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(2), pages 553-563, March.
    26. Kevin B. Grier & Ólan T. Henry & Nilss Olekalns & Kalvinder Shields, 2004. "The asymmetric effects of uncertainty on inflation and output growth," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(5), pages 551-565.
    27. Serena Ng & Pierre Perron, 2001. "LAG Length Selection and the Construction of Unit Root Tests with Good Size and Power," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(6), pages 1519-1554, November.
    28. Antonakakis, Nikolaos & Christou, Christina & Gil-Alana, Luis A. & Gupta, Rangan, 2021. "Inflation-targeting and inflation volatility: International evidence from the cosine-squared cepstrum," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 29-38.
    29. Jim Lee & Harold Glenn A. Valera, 2016. "Price transmission and volatility spillovers in Asian rice markets: Evidence from MGARCH and panel GARCH models," The International Trade Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 14-32, January.
    30. Christopher Bowdler & Adeel Malik, 2005. "Openness and inflation volatility: cross-country evidence," CSAE Working Paper Series 2005-08, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    31. Nelson, Daniel B, 1991. "Conditional Heteroskedasticity in Asset Returns: A New Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(2), pages 347-370, March.
    32. Cavallo, Eduardo & Galindo, Arturo & Izquierdo, Alejandro & León, John Jairo, 2013. "The role of relative price volatility in the efficiency of investment allocation," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 1-18.
    33. K. Istrefi & A. Piloiu, 2016. "Economic policy uncertainty and inflation expectations," Rue de la Banque, Banque de France, issue 33, november..
    34. Glosten, Lawrence R & Jagannathan, Ravi & Runkle, David E, 1993. "On the Relation between the Expected Value and the Volatility of the Nominal Excess Return on Stocks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(5), pages 1779-1801, December.
    35. Holland, A Steven, 1995. "Inflation and Uncertainty: Tests for Temporal Ordering," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 27(3), pages 827-837, August.
    36. Daal, Elton & Naka, Atsuyuki & Sanchez, Benito, 2005. "Re-examining inflation and inflation uncertainty in developed and emerging countries," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 180-186, November.
    37. Bachmann, Rüdiger & Born, Benjamin & Elstner, Steffen & Grimme, Christian, 2019. "Time-varying business volatility and the price setting of firms," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 82-99.
    38. Akhand Akhtar Hossain & Popkarn Arwatchanakarn, 2016. "Inflation and inflation volatility in Thailand," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(30), pages 2792-2806, June.
    39. Ding, Zhuanxin & Granger, Clive W. J. & Engle, Robert F., 1993. "A long memory property of stock market returns and a new model," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 83-106, June.
    40. Jongrim Ha & M. Ayhan Kose & Franziska L. Ohnsorge, 2019. "Understanding Inflation in Emerging and Developing Economies," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1902, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    41. Dong-Hyeon Kim & Shu-Chin Lin, 2012. "Inflation and Inflation Volatility Revisited," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 327-345, December.
    42. Chris Redl, 2018. "Macroeconomic Uncertainty in South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 86(3), pages 361-380, September.
    43. Ball, Laurence, 1992. "Why does high inflation raise inflation uncertainty?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 371-388, June.
    44. Rodolfo Cermeño & Kevin B. Grier, 2006. "Conditional Heteroskedasticity and Cross-Sectional Dependence in Panel Data: An Empirical Study of Inflation Uncertainty in the G7 countries," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Panel Data Econometrics Theoretical Contributions and Empirical Applications, pages 259-277, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    45. Christopher Bowdler & Adeel Malik, 2005. "Openness and inflaton volatility: Cross-country evidence," Economics Series Working Papers 2005-W14, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    46. Lewis, Jeffrey B. & Linzer, Drew A., 2005. "Estimating Regression Models in Which the Dependent Variable Is Based on Estimates," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(4), pages 345-364.
    47. Caglayan, Mustafa & Xu, Bing, 2016. "Inflation volatility effects on the allocation of bank loans," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 27-39.
    48. Benoit Mandelbrot, 1967. "The Variation of Some Other Speculative Prices," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40, pages 393-393.
    49. Devereux, Michael, 1989. "A Positive Theory of Inflation and Inflation Variance," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 27(1), pages 105-116, January.
    50. Born, Benjamin & Pfeifer, Johannes, 2014. "Policy risk and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 68-85.
    51. Neil Lawton & Liam A. Gallagher, 2020. "The negative side of inflation targeting: revisiting inflation uncertainty in the EMU," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(29), pages 3186-3203, June.
    52. Mehmet Balcilar & Zeynel Abidin Ozdemir, 2013. "Asymmetric and Time-Varying Causality between Inflation and Inflation Uncertainty in G-7 Countries," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 60(1), pages 1-42, February.
    53. Engle, Robert F, 1982. "Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity with Estimates of the Variance of United Kingdom Inflation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 987-1007, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shah, Said Zamin & Baharumshah, Ahmad Zubaidi & Hook, Law Siong & Habibullah, Muzafar Shah, 2017. "Nominal uncertainty, real uncertainty and macroeconomic performance in a time-varying asymmetric framework: Implications for monetary policy," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 75-93.
    2. Chi-Wei Su & Hui Yu & Hsu-Ling Chang & Xiao-Lin Li, 2017. "How does inflation determine inflation uncertainty? A Chinese perspective," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 1417-1434, May.
    3. Chevaughn van der Westhuizen & Reneé van Eyden & Goodness C. Aye, 2023. "Is inflation uncertainty a self‐fulfilling prophecy in South Africa?," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 91(3), pages 306-329, September.
    4. Nora Abu Asab & Juan Carlos Cuestas & Alberto Montagnoli, 2018. "Inflation targeting or exchange rate targeting: Which framework supports the goal of price stability in emerging market economies?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-21, August.
    5. Zeynel Abidin Ozdemir, 2010. "Dynamics Of Inflation, Output Growth And Their Uncertainty In The Uk: An Empirical Analysis," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 78(6), pages 511-537, December.
    6. Siti Hamizah Mohd & Ahmad Zubaidi Baharumshah & Stilianos Fountas, 2013. "Inflation, Inflation Uncertainty And Output Growth: Recent Evidence From Asean-5 Countries," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 58(04), pages 1-17.
    7. Chevaughn van der Westhuizen & Renee van Eyden & Goodness C. Aye, 2022. "Is Inflation Uncertainty a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? The Inflation-Inflation Uncertainty Nexus and Inflation Targeting in South Africa," Working Papers 202254, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    8. Gabriel Rodriguez & Mauricio Alvarado, 2025. "The Inflation Uncertainty-Inflation Relationship: Time Variation Across Latin America and the G7," Documentos de Trabajo / Working Papers 2025-544, Departamento de Economía - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
    9. Carmen PINTILESCU & Mircea ASANDULUI & Elena-Daniela VIORICA & Danut-Vasile JEMNA, 2016. "Investigation On The Causal Relationship Between Inflation, Output Growth And Their Uncertainties In Romania," Review of Economic and Business Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 17, pages 71-89, June.
    10. Mehmet Balcilar & Zeynel Abidin Ozdemir, 2013. "Asymmetric and Time-Varying Causality between Inflation and Inflation Uncertainty in G-7 Countries," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 60(1), pages 1-42, February.
    11. Said Zamin Shah & Said Zamin Shah & Ahmad Zubaidi Baharumshah & Muzafar Shah Habibullah & Law Siong Hook, 2017. "The Asymmetric Effects of Real and Nominal Uncertainty on Inflation and Output Growth: Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(1), pages 377-386.
    12. Bredin, Don & Fountas, Stilianos, 2018. "US inflation and inflation uncertainty over 200 years," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(2), pages 141-159, August.
    13. Levent, Korap, 2009. "Enflasyon ve enflasyon belirsizliği ilişkisi için G7 ekonomileri üzerine bir inceleme [An investigation for the inflation and inflation uncertainty relationship upon the G7 economies]," MPRA Paper 19478, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Chang, Kuang-Liang, 2012. "The impacts of regime-switching structures and fat-tailed characteristics on the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 523-536.
    15. Kuang‐Liang Chang & Chi‐Wei He, 2010. "Does The Magnitude Of The Effect Of Inflation Uncertainty On Output Growth Depend On The Level Of Inflation?," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 78(2), pages 126-148, March.
    16. Conrad, Christian & Hartmann, Matthias, 2014. "Cross-sectional evidence on the relation between monetary policy, macroeconomic conditions and low-frequency inflation uncertainty," Working Papers 0574, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    17. Rifai Afin, 2023. "Interlinka Terlinkage Of M Ge Of Macroeconomic Uncer Croeconomic Uncertainty And Macroeconomic Performance: Evidence From Asean-5 Countries Panel Var," Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking, Bank Indonesia, vol. 26(1), pages 39-68, March.
    18. Buth, Bora & Kakinaka, Makoto & Miyamoto, Hiroaki, 2015. "Inflation and inflation uncertainty: The case of Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 31-43.
    19. Ahmad Zubaidi Baharumshah & Siew-Voon Soon, 2014. "Inflation, inflation uncertainty and output growth: what does the data say for Malaysia?," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 41(3), pages 370-386, May.
    20. Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Kontonikas, Alexandros, 2009. "The Euro and inflation uncertainty in the European Monetary Union," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 954-971, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bdm:wpaper:2025-13. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Subgerencia de desarrollo de sistemas (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bangvmx.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.