IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecnote/v43y2014i1p63-78.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Central Bank Forecasts of Policy Interest Rates: An Evaluation of the First Years

Author

Listed:
  • Meredith Beechey
  • Pär Österholm

Abstract

type="main"> In recent years, the central banks of Norway and Sweden have published their endogenous policy interest-rate forecasts. In this paper, we evaluate those forecasts alongside policy-rate expectations inferred from market pricing. We find that for both economies, there are only small differences in relative forecasting precision between the central bank and market-implied measures. However, both types of forecast fail tests for unbiasedness and efficiency at longer horizons.

Suggested Citation

  • Meredith Beechey & Pär Österholm, 2014. "Central Bank Forecasts of Policy Interest Rates: An Evaluation of the First Years," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 43(1), pages 63-78, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecnote:v:43:y:2014:i:1:p:63-78
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan S. Blinder & Michael Ehrmann & Marcel Fratzscher & Jakob De Haan & David-Jan Jansen, 2008. "Central Bank Communication and Monetary Policy: A Survey of Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(4), pages 910-945, December.
    2. Vartiainen, Juhana, 2010. "Interpreting Wage Bargaining Norms," Working Papers 116, National Institute of Economic Research.
    3. Gren, Ing-Marie, 2003. "Monetary Green Accounting and Ecosystem Services," Working Papers 86, National Institute of Economic Research.
    4. van der Cruijsen, Carin A.B. & Eijffinger, Sylvester C.W. & Hoogduin, Lex H., 2010. "Optimal central bank transparency," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(8), pages 1482-1507, December.
    5. Campbell, John Y. (ed.), 2008. "Asset Prices and Monetary Policy," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226092119, September.
    6. Url, Thomas, 1996. "Internationalists, Regionalists, or Eurocentrists," Working Papers 51, National Institute of Economic Research.
    7. Öller, Lars-Erik & Barot, Bharat, 1999. "Comparing the Accuracy of European GDP Forecasts," Working Papers 64, National Institute of Economic Research.
    8. Stephen Morris & Hyun Song Shin, 2002. "Social Value of Public Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1521-1534, December.
    9. Boot, Arnoud W A & Greenbaum, Stuart I & Thakor, Anjan V, 1993. "Reputation and Discretion in Financial Contracting," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1165-1183, December.
    10. Johansson, Kerstin, 1998. "Exports in the Econometric Model KOSMOS," Working Papers 62, National Institute of Economic Research.
    11. Glenn D. Rudebusch & John C. Williams, 2008. "Revealing the Secrets of the Temple: The Value of Publishing Central Bank Interest Rate Projections," NBER Chapters, in: Asset Prices and Monetary Policy, pages 247-289, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. van der Cruijsen, Carin A.B. & Eijffinger, Sylvester C.W. & Hoogduin, Lex H., 2010. "Optimal central bank transparency," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(8), pages 1482-1507, December.
    13. Ruist, Erik, 1996. "Temporal Aggregation of an Econometric Equation," Working Papers 52, National Institute of Economic Research.
    14. John Y. Campbell, 2008. "Asset Prices and Monetary Policy," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number camp06-1.
    15. Eriksson, Kimmo & Karlander, Johan & Öller, Lars-Erik, 1996. "Hierarchical Assignments: Stability and Fairness," Working Papers 50, National Institute of Economic Research.
    16. Lundvik, Petter, 1996. "Generational Accounting in a Small Open Economy," Working Papers 49, National Institute of Economic Research.
    17. Baghestani, Hamid, 2008. "Federal Reserve versus private information: Who is the best unemployment rate predictor," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 101-110.
    18. Huhtala, Anni & Samakovlis, Eva, 2003. "Green Accounting, Air Pollution and Health," Working Papers 82, National Institute of Economic Research.
    19. Barot, Bharat & Yang, Zan, 2002. "House Prices and Housing Investment in Sweden and the United Kingdom: Econometric Analysis for the Period 1970-1998," Working Papers 80, National Institute of Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Natvik, Gisle J. & Rime, Dagfinn & Syrstad, Olav, 2020. "Does publication of interest rate paths provide guidance?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    2. Helder Ferreira de Mendonça & João Pedro Neves Maia, 2022. "Interest rate expectations based on Taylor rule versus central bank’s survey: which performs better in a large emerging economy?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(39), pages 4532-4544, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Östblom, Göran & Ljunggren Söderman, Maria & Sjöström, Magnus, 2010. "Analysing future solid waste generation - Soft linking a model of waste management with a CGE-model for Sweden," Working Papers 118, National Institute of Economic Research.
    2. Österholm, Pär, 2013. "Forecasting Business Investment in the Short Term Using Survey Data," Working Papers 131, National Institute of Economic Research.
    3. P�r Österholm, 2014. "Survey data and short-term forecasts of Swedish GDP growth," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 135-139, January.
    4. Jan-Erik Antipin & Farid Jimmy Boumediene & Pär Österholm, 2014. "On the Usefulness of Constant Gain Least Squares when Forecasting the Unemployment Rate," Applied Economics Quarterly (formerly: Konjunkturpolitik), Duncker & Humblot GmbH, Berlin, vol. 60(4), pages 315-336.
    5. Vartiainen, Juhana, 2010. "Interpreting Wage Bargaining Norms," Working Papers 116, National Institute of Economic Research.
    6. Boman, Mattias & Huhtala, Anni & Nilsson, Charlotte & Alroth, Sofia & Bostedt, Göran & Mattssson, Leif & Gong, Peichen, 2003. "Applying the Contingent Valuation Method in Resource Accounting: A Bold Proposal," Working Papers 85, National Institute of Economic Research.
    7. Gren, Ing-Marie, 2003. "Monetary Green Accounting and Ecosystem Services," Working Papers 86, National Institute of Economic Research.
    8. Lindén, Johan, 2004. "The Labor Market in KIMOD," Working Papers 89, National Institute of Economic Research.
    9. Forslund, Johanna & Samakovlis, Eva & Vredin Johansson, Maria, 2006. "Matters Risk? The Allocation of Government Subsidies for Remediation of Contaminated Sites under the Local Investment Programme," Working Papers 94, National Institute of Economic Research.
    10. Marcus Mossfeldt & Par Osterholm, 2011. "The persistent labour-market effects of the financial crisis," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(7), pages 637-642.
    11. Lindström, Tomas, 2003. "The Role of High-Tech Capital Formation for Swedish Productivity Growth," Working Papers 83, National Institute of Economic Research.
    12. Ma, Yong & Li, Shushu, 2015. "Bayesian estimation of China's monetary policy transparency: A New Keynesian approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 236-248.
    13. Jakob de Haan & David-Jan Jansen, 2009. "The communication policy of the European Central Bank: An overview of the first decade," DNB Working Papers 212, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    14. van der Cruijsen, C.A.B., 2008. "The economic impact of central bank transparency," Other publications TiSEM 86c1ba91-1952-45b4-adac-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Günes Kamber & Özer Karagedikli & Christie Smith, 2015. "Applying an Inflation-Targeting Lens to Macroprodential Policy "Institutions"," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 11(4), pages 395-429, September.
    16. Pacheco, Luis, 2010. "ECB Projections: should leave it to the pros?," Working Papers 11/2010, Universidade Portucalense, Centro de Investigação em Gestão e Economia (CIGE).
    17. Meredith Beechey & P�r Österholm, 2014. "Policy interest-rate expectations in Sweden: a forecast evaluation," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(14), pages 984-991, September.
    18. Serge Jeanneau, 2009. "Communication of monetary policy decisions by central banks: what is revealed and why," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 47.
    19. Michael Ehrmann & Sylvester Eijffinger & Marcel Fratzscher, 2012. "The Role of Central Bank Transparency for Guiding Private Sector Forecasts," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(3), pages 1018-1052, September.
    20. Robert S. Chirinko & Christopher Curran, 2013. "Greenspan Shrugs: Central Bank Communication, Formal Pronouncements and Bond Market Volatility," CESifo Working Paper Series 4236, CESifo.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecnote:v:43:y:2014:i:1:p:63-78. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0391-5026 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.