This study empirically assesses the relationship between inflation and economic growth in Ethiopia using quarterly dataset from 1992Q1 to 2010Q4. In doing so, an interesting policy issue arises. What is the threshold level of inflation for the Ethiopian economy? Based on the Engle-Granger and Johansen co-integration tests it is found out that there is a positive long-run relationship between inflation and economic growth. The error correction models show that in cases of short-run disequilibrium, the inflation model adjusts itself to its long-run path correcting roughly 40% of the imbalance in each quarter. In addition, based on the conditional least square technique, the estimated threshold model suggests 10% as the optimal level of inflation that facilitates growth. An inflation level higher or lower than the threshold level of inflation affects the economic growth negatively and hence fiscal and monetary policy coordination is vital to keep inflation at the threshold.
This is the first comprehensive study in the context of EMDEs that covers, in one consistent framework, the evolution and global and domestic drivers of inflation, the role of expectations, exchange rate pass-through and policy implications. In addition, the report analyzes inflation and monetary policy related challenges in LICs. The report documents three major findings: In First, EMDE disinflation over the past four decades was to a significant degree a result of favorable external developments, pointing to the risk of rising EMDE inflation if global inflation were to increase. In particular, the decline in EMDE inflation has been supported by broad-based global disinflation amid rapid international trade and financial integration and the disruption caused by the global financial crisis. While domestic factors continue to be the main drivers of short-term movements in EMDE inflation, the role of global factors has risen by one-half between the 1970s and the 2000s. On average, global shocks, especially oil price swings and global demand shocks have accounted for more than one-quarter of domestic inflation variatio--and more in countries with stronger global linkages and greater reliance on commodity imports. In LICs, global food and energy price shocks accounted for another 12 percent of core inflation variatio--half more than in advanced economies and one-fifth more than in non-LIC EMDEs. Second, inflation expectations continue to be less well-anchored in EMDEs than in advanced economies, although a move to inflation targeting and better fiscal frameworks has helped strengthen monetary policy credibility. Lower monetary policy credibility and exchange rate flexibility have also been associated with higher pass-through of exchange rate shocks into domestic inflation in the event of global shocks, which have accounted for half of EMDE exchange rate variation. Third, in part because of poorly anchored inflation expectations, the transmission of global commodity price shocks to domestic LIC inflation (combined with unintended consequences of other government policies) can have material implications for poverty: the global food price spikes in 2010-11 tipped roughly 8 million people into poverty.
Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2017 in the subject Economics - Economic Cycle and Growth, grade: 1, , language: English, abstract: The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between inflation and economic growth in Ethiopia over the period of 1991/92- 2014/15 by using data at quarter base. The study was employed Johansen method of co-integration and vector error correction model and a technique of conditional least square. The result shows that both in long-run and short-run the relationship between inflation and economic growth is positive. Despite to this, the granger causality test tells us bi- directional causation between these two variables. The result also revealed that threshold level of inflation beyond on which inflation negatively affects economic growth of Ethiopia is 5 percent. Therefore, co-ordination between macro- economic policy makers is vital and should have to raise their hands and put their eyes on measures that keep down inflation below 5 percent to have sustainable economic growth in the country.
In recent years, the Federal Reserve and central banks worldwide have enjoyed remarkable success in their battle against inflation. The challenge now confronting the Fed and its counterparts is how to proceed in this newly benign economic environment: Should monetary policy seek to maintain a rate of low-level inflation or eliminate inflation altogether in an effort to attain full price stability? In a seminal article published in 1997, Martin Feldstein developed a framework for calculating the gains in economic welfare that might result from a move from a low level of inflation to full price stability. The present volume extends that analysis, focusing on the likely costs and benefits of achieving price stability not only in the United States, but in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom as well. The results show that even small changes in already low inflation rates can have a substantial impact on the economic performance of different countries, and that variations in national tax rules can affect the level of gain from disinflation.
The objective of this study is to estimate inflation threshold and examine its impact on the inflation-growth nexus in selected African regional economic communities. While a number of empirical studies exist in this area for developing countries, they bundle up countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America which do not have the same inflation experiences. This study therefore focuses on Africa. However, since African regional groupings themselves have different inflation experiences, non-linearity in the relationship between inflation and growth is explored within each grouping separately. The study uses dynamic panel threshold modeling recently suggested by Kremer et al. (2013) which extends the non-dynamic panel threshold model of Hansen (1999) and the cross-sectional threshold model of Caner and Hansen (2004). The results indicate that the estimated inflation threshold is different across the regional economic communities. Nonlinearity in inflation-growth nexus seems to hold in CEMAC, COMESA and SADC while it is questioned in WAEMU and WAMZ. For CEMAC, COMESA and SADC, the findings indicate that inflation above the threshold is harmful to growth. Some correlations are established in this study but further analysis is needed to suggest a policy.
