İnflyasiya hədəflənməsinin əməliyyat çərçivəsi: ölkə təcrübələri AMB üçün nə vəd edir?

The CBAR plans to make a transition from the current peg regime where exchange rate acts as a “nominal anchor” to an inflation targeting (IT) regime. All leading central banks which adhere to an IT regime adopt a respective operational framework consistent with the announced monetary regime. Unfortunately, in compared to the transmission mechanism of the monetary policy which is under the spotlight, operational frameworks are not that much illuminated. This study explores a relatively “least conspicuous facet” of monetary policy, mainly focusing on experiences of various leading central banks. In addition, this paper analyzes the current operational framework of the Bank, pointing out the constraints and proposes several recommendations on how to adopt a proper operational framework for the new regime

Indicator Based Forecasting of Business Cycles in Azerbaijan

This paper has attempted to construct leading indicator systems and based on that to predict future contraction period of the Azerbaijan non-oil economy using more than 100 publicly available economic and financial data. Our results show plausible and significant performance of composite leading indicator system with average leading time of 7.2 months. We found that between January of 2000 and May of 2014, there were 6 turning points in Azerbaijan non-oil economy, consisting of three peaks and three troughs corresponding three expansion and four contraction periods. It turns out that the average duration of expansion and contraction phases is 43 and 10 month, respectively. Based on selected leading indicators we constructed composite indicator is found to be able to predict all the six turning points. Using dynamic probit model we estimated contraction probability of non-oil output gap for the future period. Out-of-sample as well as in-sample forecast performance suggest that the leading indicator systems have significant predictive power and could be used as a useful tool for economic forecasting

Beating a Random Walk: “Hard Times” for Forecasting Inflation in Post-Oil Boom Years?

In this study, we investigate forecasting performance of various univariate and multivariate models in predicting inflation for different horizons. We design our forecast experiment for the post-oil boom years of 2010-2014 and compare forecasting ability of the different models with that of naïve ones. We find that for all forecast horizons simple naïve models have equal forecasting ability with relatively sophisticated models which allow for richer economic dynamics. To check whether forecasting ability of naïve models has not been inferior to relatively sophisticated ones in boom and pre-boom years as well, we repeat our forecast experiment and estimate the models for the period 2003-2006 and keep the years 2006-2010 for undertaking pseudo out-of-sample exercise. Our experiment reveals that surprising forecasting performance of naïve models in post-oil boom years is a new phenomenon and in fact, the employed models have exhibited significant forecasting advantage over naïve ones in boom and pre-boom years. We find that despite declining volatility in inflation over the post-oil boom years, it has become considerably difficult for our models to beat naïve ones due to recently unpredictable behavior of inflation

Indicator Based Forecasting of Business Cycles in Azerbaijan

This paper has attempted to construct leading indicator systems and based on that to predict future contraction period of the Azerbaijan non-oil economy using more than 100 publicly available economic and financial data. Our results show plausible and significant performance of composite leading indicator system with average leading time of 7.2 months. We found that between January of 2000 and May of 2014, there were 6 turning points in Azerbaijan non-oil economy, consisting of three peaks and three troughs corresponding three expansion and four contraction periods. It turns out that the average duration of expansion and contraction phases is 43 and 10 month, respectively. Based on selected leading indicators we constructed composite indicator is found to be able to predict all the six turning points. Using dynamic probit model we estimated contraction probability of non-oil output gap for the future period. Out-of-sample as well as in-sample forecast performance suggest that the leading indicator systems have significant predictive power and could be used as a useful tool for economic forecasting

Beating a Random Walk: “Hard Times” for Forecasting Inflation in Post-Oil Boom Years?

In this study, we investigate forecasting performance of various univariate and multivariate models in predicting inflation for different horizons. We design our forecast experiment for the post-oil boom years of 2010-2014 and compare forecasting ability of the different models with that of naïve ones. We find that for all forecast horizons simple naïve models have equal forecasting ability with relatively sophisticated models which allow for richer economic dynamics. To check whether forecasting ability of naïve models has not been inferior to relatively sophisticated ones in boom and pre-boom years as well, we repeat our forecast experiment and estimate the models for the period 2003-2006 and keep the years 2006-2010 for undertaking pseudo out-of-sample exercise. Our experiment reveals that surprising forecasting performance of naïve models in post-oil boom years is a new phenomenon and in fact, the employed models have exhibited significant forecasting advantage over naïve ones in boom and pre-boom years. We find that despite declining volatility in inflation over the post-oil boom years, it has become considerably difficult for our models to beat naïve ones due to recently unpredictable behavior of inflation

Azərbaycan Mərkəzi Bankının inflyasiya hədəfi: Baza yoxsa manşet inflyasiya?

Qarşısına inflyasiya hədəflənməsi (İH) rejiminə keçid məqsədi qoyan mərkəzi banklar həm də müvafiq qiymət indeksinin seçilməsi ilə bağlı qərar verməlidirlər. Bu qərar verilərkən bir sıra meyarlar nəzərə alınır, mövcud qiymət indeksləri arasında "fayda-itki" analizləri aparılır, hər birinin müqayisəli üstünlükləri aşkara çıxarılır. Bu məqalədə orta müddətli dövrdə İH rejiminə keçid etmək niyyətini açıqlayan AMB-nin siyasət hədəfi olaraq manşet yoxsa baza göstəricisini götürməsi məsələsi tədqiq edilir. Mövcud baza inflyasiya ilə yanaşı Bayez Dinamik Faktor modelindən istifadə etməklə yeni baza inflyasiya göstəricisi hesablanır, müxtəlif statistik testlər əsasında göstəricilərin adekvatlığı yoxlanılır. Qiymətləndirmələr göstərir ki, yeni baza inflyasiya göstəricisi inflyasiyanın uzun müddətli trend göstəricisi kimi qəbul oluna bilər. Mövcud göstərici isə qısa müddətli dövrdə tələb olunan statistik meyarları ödəyir. Nəticə olaraq qeyd olunur ki, qərarvermə prosesində AMB, trend göstəricisi kimi yeni baza inflyasiya göstəricisini əhəmiyyətli məlumat yükünə malik göstərici kimi nəzərə ala bilər. Bununla yanaşı hesab edirik ki, verilən pul siyasəti qərarlarının ictimaiyyət tərəfindən rahat anlaşılması üçün manşet inflyasiya göstəricisinin hədəf kimi götürülməsi məqsədəuyğun olardı. The central banks which aim to shift to inflation targeting framework have to make a decision regarding the price index they will target. However, before making the final decision, several criterias must be taken into consideration, “cost-benefit” analysis of existing price indices must be made and comparative advantages of each index must be revealed. The article discusses whether the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan plans to the medium run should target headline inflation or core inflation. Along with existing core inflation, using the Bayesian Dynamic Factor model, the new core inflation is calculated and furthermore, several statistical tests are applied to test adequacy of the new core inflation measure. The estimations show that the new core inflation can be used as an indicator of the long run trend of inflation, whereas the existing core inflation is a good indicator in the short run. The article concludes that in a decision making process, the Central Bank should use the new core inflation measure as a trend indicator since it contains much more information than the existing one. However, to make monetary policy decisions comprehensible to the public, it is recommended to target headline inflatio