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Are Bayesian Fan Charts Useful for Central Banks? Uncertainty, Forecasting, and Financial Stability Stress Tests

Author

Listed:
  • Michal Franta
  • Jozef Barunik
  • Roman Horvath
  • Katerina Smidkova

Abstract

This paper shows how fan charts generated from Bayesian vector autoregression (BVAR) models can be useful for assessing 1) the forecasting accuracy of central banks' prediction models and 2) the credibility of stress tests carried out to evaluate financial stability. Using unique data from the Czech National Bank (CNB), we compare our BVAR fan charts for inflation, GDP growth, interest rate and the exchange rate to those of the CNB, which are based on past forecasting errors. Our results suggest that in terms of the Kullback-Leibler Information Criterion, BVAR fan charts typically do not outperform those of the CNB, providing a useful cross-check of their accuracy. However, we show how BVAR fan charts can rigorously deal with the non-negativity constraint on the nominal interest rate and usefully complement the official fan charts. Finally, we put forward how BVAR fan charts can be useful for assessing financial stability and propose a simple method for evaluating whether the assumptions of banks' stress tests about the macroeconomic outlook are sufficiently adverse.

Suggested Citation

  • Michal Franta & Jozef Barunik & Roman Horvath & Katerina Smidkova, 2011. "Are Bayesian Fan Charts Useful for Central Banks? Uncertainty, Forecasting, and Financial Stability Stress Tests," Working Papers 2011/10, Czech National Bank, Research and Statistics Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:cnb:wpaper:2011/10
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Adam Gersl & Petr Jakubik & Tomas Konecny & Jakub Seidler, 2013. "Dynamic Stress Testing: The Framework for Assessing the Resilience of the Banking Sector Used by the Czech National Bank," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 63(6), pages 505-536, December.
    2. Robert Ambrisko & Vitezslav Augusta & Jan Babecky & Michal Franta & Dana Hajkova & Petr Kral & Jan Libich & Pavla Netusilova & Milan Rikovsky & Jakub Rysanek & Pavel Soukup & Petr Stehlik & Vilem Vale, 2013. "Macroeconomic Effects of Fiscal Policy," Occasional Publications - Edited Volumes, Czech National Bank, Research and Statistics Department, edition 2, volume 11, number rb11/2 edited by Jan Babecky & Kamil Galuscak, March.
    3. Horváth, Roman & Vaško, Dan, 2016. "Central bank transparency and financial stability," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 45-56.
    4. Adam Gersl & Petr Jakubik & Tomas Konecny & Jakub Seidler, 2012. "Dynamic Stress Testing: The Framework for Testing Banking Sector Resilience Used by the Czech National Bank," Working Papers 2012/11, Czech National Bank, Research and Statistics Department.
    5. Gatt, William, 2014. "Communicating uncertainty - a fan chart for HICP projections," MPRA Paper 59603, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    JEL classification:

    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

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