scholarly journals Rising Global Inflation and Consumer Prices in the People's Republic of China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  

Although global inflation and commodity prices are on the rise, spillovers to consumer price inflation in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are expected to be limited. Consumer price inflation in the PRC has been driven mainly by domestic factors during the past decade, while commodity price shocks that led to higher producer costs hardly affected consumer prices. Reasons for these developments include a consumer basket of domestic products, anchored inflation expectations, and system buffers to absorb commodity price shocks. Though contagion risks of higher global inflation and commodity prices to inflation seem limited, possible transmission channels include further rising commodity prices and a shift in inflation expectations in the PRC. This note aims at providing policy recommendations on minimizing inflation transmission channels and containing inflationary expectations.

Author(s):  
Todd E. Clark ◽  
Saeed Zaman

Sharp rises in energy and other commodity prices have recently ignited concerns about inflation. Will these price increases spill over to other prices more generally? We study the typical responses of different price shocks and assess whether the recent behavior of producer and consumer prices is consistent with historical norms. Our analysis shows that the behavior of various producer and consumer prices since late 2009 has generally matched up with historical patterns. Overall, our findings suggest that effects of the recent energy and commodity price shocks on core consumer prices will be modest going forward.


Author(s):  
Atanu Ghoshray ◽  
Mohitosh Kejriwal ◽  
Mark Wohar

AbstractThis paper empirically examines the time series behavior of primary commodity prices relative to manufactures with reference to the nature of their underlying trends and the persistence of shocks driving the price processes. The direction and magnitude of the trends are assessed employing a set of econometric techniques that is robust to the nature of persistence in the commodity price shocks, thereby obviating the need for unit root pretesting. Specifically, the methods allow consistent estimation of the number and location of structural breaks in the trend function as well as facilitate the distinction between trend breaks and pure level shifts. Further, a new set of powerful unit root tests is applied to determine whether the underlying commodity price series can be characterized as difference or trend stationary processes. These tests treat breaks under the unit root null and the trend stationary alternative in a symmetric fashion thereby alleviating the procedures from spurious rejection problems and low power issues that plague most existing procedures. Relative to the extant literature, we find more evidence in favor of trend stationarity suggesting that real commodity price shocks are primarily of a transitory nature. We conclude with a discussion of the policy implications of our results.


Policy Papers ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (76) ◽  
Author(s):  

As part of its work to help low-income countries (LICs) manage volatility, the IMF has recently developed an analytical framework to assess vulnerabilities and emerging risks that arise from changes in the external environment (see IMF, 2011a). This report draws on the results of the first Vulnerability Exercise for LICs (VE-LIC) conducted by IMF staff using this new framework. The report focuses on the risks of a downturn in global growth and of further global commodity price shocks, and discusses related policy challenges. The report is organized as follows: Chapter I reviews recent macroeconomic developments, including the spike in global commodity prices earlier this year. Chapter II assesses current risks and vulnerabilities, including how a sharp downturn in global growth and further commodity price shocks would affect LICs. Chapter III discusses policy challenges in the face of these risks and vulnerabilities.


Author(s):  
Spencer Dorsey

Recent work in economics and political science has identified a positive correlation between commodity prices and violence—which are theoretically linked through an opportunity cost mechanism. The findings have important implications for the academic understanding of violence and for policy makers working to anticipate and prevent it. Despite the importance of the findings, they are based on in-sample validation and aggressively aggregated data. There is a growing understanding, both within this literature and in the broader social science literature, that out-of-sample validation should be considered essential before any policy recommendations are made based on academic research. I find that while coffee price shocks are still correlated with intrastate violence in a higher resolution test (district-month), they fail to be useful out-of-sample. These results should prompt a reevaluation of scholarly work based on the relationship between commodity prices and violence and of any policies that have been crafted based on it.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (153) ◽  
Author(s):  
Si Guo ◽  
Philippe Karam ◽  
Jan Vlcek

Inflation rates rose sharply in the Philippines during 2018. Understanding the demand and supply sources of inflation pressures is key to monetary policy response. Qualitatively, indicators have pointed to evidence of inflation pressures from both sides in 2018, with the supply factors, by and large, associated with commodity-price shocks and demand factors deduced from gleaning at the wider non-oil trade deficits seen in the Philippines. Quantitatively, we deploy a semi-structural model to decompose the contributions of various shocks to inflation. Our main findings are (1) supply factors (mainly global commodity prices) played a prominent role in explaining the rise in inflation in 2018; (2) demand factors also contributed to inflation in a non-negligible way, justifying the need for tighter monetary policy in 2018; (3) the size of the estimated output gap (an important indicator of demand pressures) could be larger, when considering the widening trade deficits in 2018; and (4) a delayed monetary policy tightening can be costly in terms of higher inflation rates, requiring larger and more aggressive interest rate hikes to bring inflation under control, based on a counterfactual exercise.


Subject The outlook for Mongolia's economy. Significance Rising commodity prices in 2016 allowed Mongolia to eke out 1% GDP growth. Over-dependence on the mining sector produced a plunge in growth over the past two years, due to a mixture of falling commodity prices (especially coal, copper and iron ore) and populist policies. The IMF in February granted Mongolia a 5.5-billion-dollar bail-out package amid concerns the country would default on its sovereign debt. Foreign investment -- once bountiful and rapidly growing -- almost disappeared, with only a slight uptick this year. The Mongolian currency has plunged over 20% against the dollar over the past year and the government's credit rating is at junk status (below a B rating by all three of the main ratings agencies). Impacts Mining will be the pillar of Mongolia's economy for the foreseeable future. It may be possible to reduce the country's exposure to commodity price shocks through diversification. Mongolia may be able to turn its location to its advantage as a transport route between China and Russia.


Author(s):  
Owen F. Humpage

Do the rising commodity prices we have seen in recent years reflect basic supply-and-demand developments in various commodity markets, or are they the first signs of inflation? In practice, it’s not always easy to tell the difference—for the public or policymakers—but fundamentally different they are. Central banks can do nothing about relative commodity-price pressures, since central banks do not produce commodities. Likewise, commodity-price shocks do not impair the ability of central banks to control inflation in principle, but they can greatly complicate the task.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document