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World steel production: A new monthly indicator of global real economic activity

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Abstract

In this paper we propose a new indicator of monthly global real economic activity, named world steel production. We use world steel production, OECD industrial production index and Kilian’s rea index to forecast world real GDP, and key commodity prices. We find that world steel production generates large statistically significant gains in forecasting world real GDP and oil prices, relative to an autoregressive benchmark. A forecast combination of the three indices produces statistically significant gains in forecasting world real GDP, oil, natural gas, gold and fertilizer prices, relative to an autoregressive benchmark.

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  • Ravazzolo, Francesco & Vespignani, Joaquin, 2017. "World steel production: A new monthly indicator of global real economic activity," Working Papers 2017-08, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tas:wpaper:23636
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    3. Funashima, Yoshito, 2020. "Global economic activity indexes revisited," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
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    6. Afees A. Salisu & Rangan Gupta & Elie Bouri & Qiang Ji, 2022. "Mixed‐frequency forecasting of crude oil volatility based on the information content of global economic conditions," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(1), pages 134-157, January.
    7. Salisu, Afees A. & Gupta, Rangan & Bouri, Elie & Ji, Qiang, 2020. "The role of global economic conditions in forecasting gold market volatility: Evidence from a GARCH-MIDAS approach," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    global real economic activity; world steel production; forecasting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E1 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models
    • E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles
    • C1 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General
    • C5 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling
    • C8 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs

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