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A Comparison of Monthly Global Indicators for Forecasting Growth

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  • Baumeister, Christiane
  • Guerin, Pierre

Abstract

This paper evaluates the predictive content of a set of alternative monthly indicators of global economic activity for nowcasting and forecasting quarterly world GDP using mixed-frequency models. We find that a recently proposed indicator that covers multiple dimensions of the global economy consistently produces substantial improvements in forecast accuracy, while other monthly measures have more mixed success. This global economic conditions indicator contains valuable information also for assessing the current and future state of the economy for a set of individual countries and groups of countries. We use this indicator to track the evolution of the nowcasts for the US, the OECD area, and the world economy during the coronavirus pandemic and quantify the main factors driving the nowcasts.

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  • Baumeister, Christiane & Guerin, Pierre, 2020. "A Comparison of Monthly Global Indicators for Forecasting Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 15403, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:15403
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    Cited by:

    1. Arabinda Basistha & Richard Startz, 2024. "Measuring persistent global economic factors with output, commodity price, and commodity currency data," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(7), pages 2860-2885, November.
    2. Stolbov, Mikhail & Shchepeleva, Maria, 2022. "Modeling global real economic activity: Evidence from variable selection across quantiles," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    3. Martin Enilov, 2024. "The predictive power of commodity prices for future economic growth: Evaluating the role of economic development," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 3040-3062, July.
    4. Zouhaier Dhifaoui & Sami Ben Jabeur & Rabeh Khalfaoui & Muhammad Ali Nasir, 2023. "Time‐varying partial‐directed coherence approach to forecast global energy prices with stochastic volatility model," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(8), pages 2292-2306, December.
    5. Galdi, Giulio & Casarin, Roberto & Ferrari, Davide & Fezzi, Carlo & Ravazzolo, Francesco, 2023. "Nowcasting industrial production using linear and non-linear models of electricity demand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    6. Hong, Yanran & Cao, Shijiao & Xu, Pengfei & Pan, Zhigang, 2024. "Interpreting the effect of global economic risks on crude oil market: A supply-demand perspective," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    7. Kliber, Agata & Łęt, Blanka & Řezáč, Pavel, 2024. "Can a boost in oil prices suspend the evolution of the green transportation market? Relationships between green indices and Brent oil," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    8. Wang, Jiqian & Ma, Feng & Bouri, Elie & Zhong, Juandan, 2022. "Volatility of clean energy and natural gas, uncertainty indices, and global economic conditions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    9. Liu, Ying & Wen, Long & Liu, Han & Song, Haiyan, 2024. "Predicting tourism recovery from COVID-19: A time-varying perspective," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    10. Zhang, Lixia & Bai, Jiancheng & Zhang, Yueyan & Cui, Can, 2023. "Global economic uncertainty and the Chinese stock market: Assessing the impacts of global indicators," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    11. Mikhail I. Stolbov & Maria A. Shchepeleva & Alexander M. Karminsky, 2021. "A global perspective on macroprudential policy interaction with systemic risk, real economic activity, and monetary intervention," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-25, December.
    12. Chew Lian Chua & Sarantis Tsiaplias & Ruining Zhou, 2024. "Constructing a high‐frequency World Economic Gauge using a mixed‐frequency dynamic factor model," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2212-2227, September.
    13. Wen, Xiaoqian & Xie, Yuxin & Pantelous, Athanasios A., 2022. "Extreme price co-movement of commodity futures and industrial production growth: An empirical evaluation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    14. Guo, Yangli & Ma, Feng & Li, Haibo & Lai, Xiaodong, 2022. "Oil price volatility predictability based on global economic conditions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    15. Nonejad, Nima, 2021. "The price of crude oil and (conditional) out-of-sample predictability of world industrial production," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    16. Feng, Lingbing & Rao, Haicheng & Lucey, Brian & Zhu, Yiying, 2024. "Volatility forecasting on China's oil futures: New evidence from interpretable ensemble boosting trees," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 1595-1615.
    17. Boriss Siliverstovs, 2021. "Gauging the Effect of Influential Observations on Measures of Relative Forecast Accuracy in a Post-COVID-19 Era: Application to Nowcasting Euro Area GDP Growth," Working Papers 2021/01, Latvijas Banka.
    18. Luke Hartigan & Tom Rosewall, 2024. "Nowcasting Quarterly GDP Growth during the COVID-19 Crisis Using a Monthly Activity Indicator," Working Papers 2024-15, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    19. Bahadir, Berrak & Gumus, Inci, 2022. "House prices, collateral effects and sectoral output dynamics in emerging market economies," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    20. Ioannis D. Vrontos & John Galakis & Ekaterini Panopoulou & Spyridon D. Vrontos, 2024. "Forecasting GDP growth: The economic impact of COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(4), pages 1042-1086, July.
    21. Byron Botha & Tim Olds & Geordie Reid & Daan Steenkamp & Rossouw van Jaarsveld, 2021. "Nowcasting South African gross domestic product using a suite of statistical models," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 89(4), pages 526-554, December.
    22. Ha, Jongrim & Kose, M. Ayhan & Ohnsorge, Franziska & Yilmazkuday, Hakan, 2023. "Understanding the global drivers of inflation: How important are oil prices?11We would like to thank Xuguang Simon Sheng, Guest Editor, and two anonymous reviewers for their detailed feedback. We also," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Midas models; Global economic conditions; World gdp growth; Nowcasting; Forecasting; Mixed frequency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes
    • C52 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Evaluation, Validation, and Selection
    • E37 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications

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