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Identifying a financial conditions index for South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Kirsten Thompson

    (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria)

  • Renee van Eyden

    (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria)

  • Rangan Gupta

    (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria)

Abstract

The global financial crisis that began in 2007-08 demonstrated how severe the impact of financial markets’ stress on real economic activity can be. In the wake of the financial crisis policy-makers and decision-makers across the world identified the critical need for a better understanding of financial conditions, and more importantly, their impact on the real economy. To this end, we have constructed a financial conditions index (FCI) for the South African economy, to enable the gauging of financial conditions and to better understand the macro-financial linkages in the country. The FCI is constructed using monthly data over the period 1966 to 2011, and is based on a set of sixteen financial variables, which include variables that define the state of international financial markets, asset prices, interest rate spreads, stock market yields and volatility, bond market volatility and monetary aggregates. We explore different methodologies for constructing the FCI, and find that rolling-window principal components analysis (PCA) yields the best result. We furthermore investigate whether it is beneficial to purge the FCI of the real effects of inflation, economic growth and interest rates, and use the identified FCI in in-sample causality testing with three macroeconomic variables.

Suggested Citation

  • Kirsten Thompson & Renee van Eyden & Rangan Gupta, 2013. "Identifying a financial conditions index for South Africa," Working Papers 201333, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:pre:wpaper:201333
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Balcilar, Mehmet & Thompson, Kirsten & Gupta, Rangan & van Eyden, Reneé, 2016. "Testing the asymmetric effects of financial conditions in South Africa: A nonlinear vector autoregression approach," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 30-43.
    2. Umit Bulut, 2016. "Do Financial Conditions have a Predictive Power on Inflation in Turkey?," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 6(2), pages 621-628.
    3. Kirsten Thompson & Reneé van Eyden & Rangan Gupta, 2015. "Testing the Out-of-Sample Forecasting Ability of a Financial Conditions Index for South Africa," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 486-501, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    financial conditions; financial crisis; principal components;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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
    • C52 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Evaluation, Validation, and Selection
    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises

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