Causality between consumer price and producer price: Evidence from Mexico

We examine the relationship between two inflation indices, consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) for Mexico, a case study country which has successfully implemented inflation targeting after the economic crisis and high inflationary situation in 1995. Since the causality running from PPI to CPI exemplifies the cost push nature of inflation and the opposite is the indicator of demand pull inflation, this analysis could provide significant policy implications. We contribute to the literature by decomposing the time–frequency relationship between CPI and PPI through continuous wavelet approach. Our results indicate a bidirectional relationship between CPI and PPI. In short periods (1 to 7 months scale) CPI is leading PPI, while for longer periods (8 to 32 months scale) PPI is the leading variable.     

基于核心通货膨胀视角的 物价走势判定研究*

核心通货膨胀对于央行准确判定物价走势、更好实现稳定物价目标具有重要意义。本文采用广义动态因子模型与频谱分解技术测度的核心通货膨胀相比于CPI通胀率能更准确反映我国物价变动的周期特征与长期趋势,对于央行更合理地引导社会公众的通胀预期,实现物价稳定与产出稳定的动态平衡具有一定的参考价值。鉴于中国转型时期通胀因素的叠加性与复杂性,本文还提出金融宏观调控应综合考虑包括核心CPI、CPI在内的多种通货膨胀指标,在维持长期物价稳定的同时,兼顾物价的短期波动。     

浅析如何预防未来的通货膨胀

根据国家统计局的数据显示,自2011年1月份以来,中国居民消费价格指数CPI同比上涨了5.0%。其中,3月份居民消费价格指数(CPI)同比上涨5.4%,创下了32个月来新高。通胀预期明显上升,物价上涨压力也随之明显加大,这成为影响宏观经济增长以及社会稳定的首要问题,而货币政策是治理通货膨胀的最有效方式之一。主要分析了中国改革开放以后,发生的两次严重的通货膨胀,并总结了所实施的货币政策的优缺点。同时本轮通货膨胀与前两次有很多相似之处,在对引发通货膨胀的众多因素进行实证分析之后,根据之前的经验,可以对当前抑制通货膨胀的货币政策进行优化,从而达到更好的治理效果。     

消费者价格指数能反映生活成本吗 基于城镇各收入阶层食品生活成本估计

本文基于超级指数和可变偏好效用函数方法构建了1997-2011年中国城镇各收入阶层家庭食品消费生活成本指数,并在此基础上将各阶层生活成本指数与其消费者价格指数进行对比,检验消费者价格指数对生活成本的反映能力。样本期间内消费者价格指数与生活成本指数比较接近,可以较好地反映生活成本的变化。基于超级指数方法的结果显示,样本期间内替代偏差与家庭收入负相关,与通货膨胀正相关,而由于偏好改变所造成的偏差在绝对值水平上则与收入水平正相关。     

Ökonometrische Inflationsanalyse für Österreich 1960/1975

Summary The following econometric study analyses the inflationary process in Austria since 1960. Price equations are estimated for the period 1960/1973 and several subperiods with quarterly and yearly data, forecasts of the development of the GNP-deflator and the consumer price index are made for 1974 and 1975. In this way it is possible to quantify the relative importance of inflationary factors and to test the stability of the price determination structures. Special emphasis is laid on the rôle of monetary variables and of price expectations in the process of price determination.The conclusion of the study is that accelerating inflation in the 70ies can be explained by the same factors than creeping inflation of the 50ies and 60ies. Inflation has always been of a mixed type, though the relative weight of cost, demand, monetary and expectational variables changed during the observation period. There is no sign that a new type of inflation with new behaviour patterns was emerging in the last years. Even the extraordinary (externally influenced) price rise in 1974 can be explained by price functions of traditional structure. Forecasts for 1975 show no substantial diminuation of inflationary pressures.     

Is there a quality bias in the Canadian CPI? Evidence from microdata

Rising consumer prices may reflect shifts by consumers to new higher‐priced products, mostly for durable and semi‐durable goods. I apply Bils’ (2009) methodology to newly available Canadian consumer price data for non‐shelter goods and services to estimate how price increases can be divided between quality growth and price inflation. I find that less than one third of observed price increases during model changeovers should be attributed to quality growth. This implies overall price inflation close to inflation measured by the official index. I conclude that, according to Bils’ methodology, the quality bias is not an important source of potential mismeasurement of CPI inflation in Canada.     

CPI与PPI的非线性Granger因果关系研究——基于深圳市月度数据的实证分析

文章基于深圳市2005年1月至2013年12月的居民消费价格指数(CPI)和工业生产者出厂价格指数(PPI),运用非线性Granger因果关系检验,从非线性的角度考察深圳市的CPI与PPI之间的作用关系,并采用逐步检验方法对CPI与PPI之间在不同时期的作用关系进行动态分析。非线性Granger因果关系检验的结果表明,在所考察的样本时期内,存在着由PPI到CPI的单向非线性Granger因果关系。逐步检验则进一步显示,PPI是引起CPI变化的非线性Granger因果原因。这说明供给因素在以CPI衡量的通货膨胀中占优于需求因素,也意味着上游生产要素的价格上涨将传导至下游消费品的价格,以致加大了成本推动通货膨胀的压力。因此,治理通货膨胀应采取以供给调控为主的政策,并适时适度地根据CPI与PPI之间的动态关系进行宏观调控。     

消费物价指数与生产者价格指数:谁带动谁?

The consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) are interrelated but significantly different concepts. Relationships between the two indices may be that of causality or non-causality. The paper conducts a Granger-causality test on China’s CPI and PPI data for the period from January 2001 to August 2008, and finds that CPI Granger causes the change in PPI, and the latter reacts to the former with a time lag of 1–3 months. The result may suggest that in contemporary Chinese economy, demand-side factors have played a more important role than supply-side factors, although the two sides both have influences on domestic inflation trend which is measured by CPI. __________ Translated from Jingji Yanjiu 经济研究 (Economic Research Journal), 2008, (11): 16–26     

Analysing the spillover of inflation in selected Euro-area countries

Journal of Quantitative Economics - We examined the spillover of inflation in selected Euro-area countries using monthly consumer price index (CPI) based inflation data covering the period 1955M1...     

Time-varying transmission effects of external shocks into inflation: how different is China from Korea?

This article examined the time-varying effects of external shocks that determine inflation on Chinese and Korean consumer price index (CPI) inflation, using data from the period 2010:1 to 2013:4. For this experimentation, we adopted the Kalman filter algorithm. Key findings include the following: first, the lagged CPI inflation is the main determinant of inflation rate in both China and Korea that is significant and has positive effects. Second, as expected, the effects of independent variables on CPI inflation rate have a considerable difference in China and Korea from the coefficients’ size and sign. Especially, China’s CPI inflation is mainly affected by domestic output growth, while Korea is more readily affected by external shocks. Third, we confirmed the time-varying effects. For instance, the positive effect of the output variable is decreasing in the Chinese inflation equation, but its negative effect is decreasing in the Korean inflation equation. Finally, we can guess Korea is a more import dependent economy than China and also the trends of estimated coefficients of China’s inflation are changing similarly to Korea. It has been proved from recent changes that there is a decreasing effect of output growth, but negatively and increasing effects of exchange rate and import dependence. Hence, those recent changes imply that this is caused by the change of the Chinese economy to be more trade dependent as well as we cannot deny the possibility of the external factors that play a role in CPI inflation, and its influence is gradually increasing in China.     

Calculating the Candy Price Index: A Classroom Inflation Experiment

In this classroom experiment, students develop a price index based on candy-purchasing decisions made by members of their class. They use their index to practice calculating inflation rates and to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the consumer price index (CPI). Instructors can use the experiment as an introduction to the topic of inflation and how it is measured. The exercise also provides a concrete example of the sources of bias in the CPI, promoting discussion of the measures the Bureau of Labor Statistics has taken to reduce bias. The experiment, including follow-up discussion, fits into a 50-minute class period. The authors and other professors have used the exercise in introductory and intermediate macroeconomics courses, in classes of 10 to 135 students.     

The time-varying effect of inflation uncertainty on inflation for Turkey

We investigate the effect of inflation uncertainty on inflation from January 1982 through March 2016 for Turkey by using the Stochastic Volatility in Mean model with time-varying parameters. Our empirical evidence from consumer price index (CPI) inflation suggests that the observed positive relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty is not robust. This positive relationship diminishes after 2002. This finding is valid for all five subcomponents of CPI inflation; however, for Health Services, Transportation Services, and Recreational and Cultural Services, an inflation-positive association is reported after 2010.     

Time and place where gold acts as an inflation hedge: An application of long-run and short-run threshold model

This study examines the short-run and long-run inflation hedging effectiveness of gold in the United States and Japan during the period of January 1971 to January 2010. Previous research has shown in the long-run that inflation tends to appropriately increase the price of gold in the U.S., leading to gold's popularity as an asset in portfolios to reduce the risk against sudden inflation. However, gold is only partially effective in hedging against inflation in Japan. This research found that the rigidity between the price of gold and the consumer price index affects the inflation hedging ability of gold in the long-run. The gold price is characterized by market disequilibrium induced by the price rigidity, causing the price of gold to be unable to response to changes in the CPI. To explore the inflation hedging ability of gold in the short-run, this study further examines the price rigidity in low and high momentum regime. It is found during the low momentum regimes that, gold return is unable to hedge against inflation in either the U.S. or Japan. However, during high momentum regimes, gold return is able to hedge against inflation in the U.S., while the price rigidity in Japan causes the price of gold to not fully hedge against inflation in the short-run.     

The Exchange Rate and Inflation in the UK

The United Kingdom is a highly open economy, and has a monetary policy strategy of targeting inflation in consumer prices. In this paper, we look at the evidence from the UK on inflation behaviour, and examine the propositions from several theoretical models about inflation dynamics in an open economy, focusing in particular on the hypothesized connections between the exchange rate and consumer price inflation. Theoretical open‐economy macroeconomic models ‘cover the waterfront’ on this issue, ranging from ‘exchange rate disconnect’ to a rigid link between nominal exchange rate changes and inflation. We estimate on UK data the open‐economy Phillips curves implied by the alternative explanations. We argue that, of the alternatives considered, only a model where imports are modelled as an intermediate good, as in McCallum and Nelson (1999) , provides a reasonable match with the data. Unlike the standard model, in which imports are treated as a final consumer good, the intermediate‐goods specification provides support for a policy of CPI inflation targeting.     

A PANIC analysis on regional and sectoral inflation: the Spanish case

This article studies the stochastic properties of several inflation rates for the Spanish economy using the consumer price index (CPI) for the 17 regions and 12 groups of goods and services, and the producer price index (PPI) for 26 industrial sectors. To this end, we employ the panel analysis of nonstationarity in idiosyncratic and common components (PANIC) approach proposed by Bai and Ng (2004, 2010). This methodology enables us to decompose the observed inflation rate series into a common and an idiosyncratic component, thus allowing us to identify the exact source of nonstationarity. Our analysis provides strong evidence of the presence of a common stochastic trend driving the observed series forming the panel of CPI-based inflation rates for the regions. This, coupled with the presence of a jointly stationary idiosyncratic component, implies the existence of pairwise cointegration across the regional CPI-based inflation rates, which show a clear pattern of convergence over time. This gives an indication of increased geographical homogeneity in consumption patterns. The evidence for the panels of CPI-based inflation of groups of goods and services and PPI-based inflation of industrial sectors indicates the existence of four independent common stochastic trends. This, combined with jointly stationary idiosyncratic series, provides much weaker evidence of cross-cointegration for these two panels.     

A generalization of modern production theory

This paper analyses the relationship between inflation and equity returns in Australia over the period January 1974 to March 1996. Analysis is based on monthly and quarterly data, using value weighted equity indices at both the aggregate market and industry level. Three price indices, the consumer price index (CPI) (quarterly) and the manufactured materials used index (MMU) and the manufacturing articles produced index (MAP) (both monthly and quarterly) are used to measure inflation. Results provide little evidence of the statistically significant negative relationship observed in the US for the full study period. Analysis is also conducted on three subperiods, ‘monetary targeting’ (July 1976–January 1985), ‘checklist approach’ (February 1985–December 1989) and anti-inflation (January 1990–March 1996). At the market level the anti-inflation subperiod does provide some evidence of a negative relationship between inflation and equity returns though statistical significance is not apparent with quarterly time series. The impact of expected inflation on industry returns varies considerably. Consistent with the overall market analysis, the incidence of negative expected inflation betas increases in the latter anti-inflation subperiod. Finally, changes in Government inflation policy appear to have greatest impact on industrial company expected inflation betas.     

需求拉动,还是投资推动——基于新一轮通胀周期的实证研究

对通货膨胀及其成因的研究一直是宏观经济学与政府政策的一项重要内容。本文通过建立向量误差修正模型(VECM),对我国1997～2009年新一周期的通货膨胀进行实证研究。结果发现,月度消费价格指数(CPI)和工业品出厂价格指数(PPI)之间存在长期均衡关系,其格兰杰因果关系走向是CPI影响PPI,即价格传导走向是自下而上,而不是相反。这也就是说,总需求的扩张仍是此阶段通货膨胀的根源,所谓结构性通胀、输入型通胀等非典型通胀的解释得不到实证支持。研究还发现,在解释现阶段通胀中,供给价格弹性和巨型经济体是需要注意的两个因素。     

Do disaggregated CPI data improve the accuracy of inflation forecasts?

In this paper, we evaluate the role of using consumer price index (CPI) disaggregated data to improve the accuracy of inflation forecasts. Our forecasting approach is based on extracting the factors from the subcomponents of the CPI at the highest degree of disaggregation. The data set contains 54 macroeconomic series and 243 CPI subcomponents from 1992 to 2009 for Mexico. We find that the factor models that include disaggregated data outperform the benchmark autoregressive model and the factor models containing alternative groups of macroeconomic variables. We provide evidence that using disaggregated price data improves forecasting performance. The forecasts of the factor models that extract the information from the CPI disaggregated data are as accurate as the forecasts from the survey of experts.     

Inflation in Argentina during the 2000s

The paper presents a neo-structuralist econometric analysis of the monthly inflation rates. The model breaks down the CPI into different components based on their price-formation mechanisms. The basic breakdown defines three components: PFLEX (fruits and vegetables, 3.6% of the basket), PREGUL (prices regulated by the government, 20.1% of the basket) and PFIX (the rest of goods and services, 76.3% of the basket). PFIX is the focus of the econometric analysis while PFLEX and PREGUL are considered exogenous. The explanatory variables are the monthly rates of: the price of bovine cattle at the domestic market, the international soy price, the price by ton of imported intermediate goods, the nominal exchange rate, the average wage of workers that are registered in Social Security and the productivity, measured by the GDP by employed worker. There was an informal indexation mechanism in the labor market. Average monthly wages rose at annual rates that were almost always higher than the sum of past annual inflation plus the annual increase in productivity. The over-indexation of the unit labor cost was the main inflationary factor in the period. The inertial component, represented in the model by the previous monthly rate, determines 60% of the current rate.     

Understanding changes in exchange rate pass-through

Recent research suggests that there has been a decline in the extent to which firms “pass-through” changes in exchange rates to prices. This paper provides further evidence in support of this claim. Additionally, it proposes an explanation for this phenomenon. The paper then presents empirical evidence of a structural break during the 1990s in the relationship between the real exchange rate and CPI inflation for a set of fourteen OECD countries. It is suggested that the recent reduction in the real exchange rate pass-through can in part be attributed to the low inflationary environment of the 1990s.