How accurate are South African macroeconomic forecasts?

dc.creatorvan Walbeek, Corne
dc.date2014-06-27T08:45:28Z
dc.date2014-06-27T08:45:28Z
dc.date2013
dc.date.accessioned2015-05-28T10:06:43Z
dc.date.available2015-05-28T10:06:43Z
dc.date.issued2015-05-28
dc.descriptionThis paper considers the ex post accuracy of two published sets of macroeconomic forecasts: the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU's) Country Report and the "Economist of the Year" consensus forecast, sponsored by Media 24. Root weighted mean square errors (RWMSEs) of these two competing entities' forecasts are, on average, about 60% of the RWMSEs of adaptive naïve predictions for current-year forecasts and about 75% of the RWMSEs of adaptive naïve predictions for one-year-ahead forecasts. There is no substantial difference in the forecast accuracy of the two entities, despite large differences in forecasting methodology. Forecasts are revised on a monthly basis. Monthly revisions in Media 24's consensus forecast are substantially more likely to reduce forecast errors than the EIU's monthly forecast revisions. Revisions in the next-year forecasts for GDP growth and inflation are only marginally better than random, and thus such revisions have little credibility.
dc.identifiervan Walbeek, C.P. (2013). How accurate are South African macroeconomic forecasts? Journal for Studies in Economics and Econometrics, 37(3): 1-23.
dc.identifierhttp://reference.sabinet.co.za/sa_epublication_article/bersee_v37_n3_a1
dc.identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/11090/750
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article DA - 2015-05-28 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - Macroeconomic forecasts LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2015 T1 - How accurate are South African macroeconomic forecasts? TI - How accurate are South African macroeconomic forecasts? UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11090/750 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11090/750
dc.languageen
dc.publisherJournal for Studies in Economics and Econometrics
dc.publisher.departmentSALDRUen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Commerceen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subjectMacroeconomic forecasts
dc.titleHow accurate are South African macroeconomic forecasts?
dc.typeJournal Article
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
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