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A Comparison of Monthly Global Indicators for Forecasting Growth

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  • Christiane Baumeister
  • Pierre Guérin

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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  • Christiane Baumeister & Pierre Guérin, 2020. "A Comparison of Monthly Global Indicators for Forecasting Growth," NBER Working Papers 28014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28014
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    Cited by:

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    2. 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.
    3. 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).
    4. 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).
    5. 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).
    6. 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).
    7. 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).
    8. 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.
    9. 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).
    10. Arabinda Basistha & Richard Startz, 2023. "Measuring Persistent Global Economic Factors with Output, Commodity Price, and Commodity Currency Data," Working Papers 23-05, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    11. 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).
    12. 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).
    13. 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).
    14. 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).
    15. 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).
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
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    21. 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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    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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