Academic literature on the topic 'International price volatility'

This study examines the effects of export price volatility in cattle markets using panel data from twelve countries between 1970 and 2013. Fixed-effects models with Driscoll and Kraay standard errors were estimated to control for cross-sectional dependence. Results indicate that price transmission depends on prices previously paid to farmers, variations in export prices and volatility of export prices, which reduces farmer prices in developed countries and it increases them in developing countries. In contrast, marketing margins are reduced by contemporaneous export price volatility and are increased by previous volatility. Exporters in developing countries take more time to transmit shocks in international prices, pay lower prices to farmers and absorb a bigger proportion of price fluctuations. These price transmission imperfections affect investments, technology adoption, production level and quality across the chain in developing countries, which negatively impact farmers, input and service providers, traders and other actors of the beef cattle chain.

<p>Recent volatility in crude oil prices has affected economies around the world, especially the US economy, which is the largest consumer of oil. This paper focuses on how shocks to volatility of crude oil prices may affect future oil prices. The paper uses daily crude oil price data for the past 10 years to test and model the oil price volatility by fitting different variations of GARCH including a univariate asymmetric GARCH model to the series. Tests show high persistence and asymmetric behavior in oil price volatility, and reveal that negative and positive news have a different impact on oil price volatility. These results will help interested observers better understanding of the energy markets and has important consequences for the overall economy.</p>

Many studies focus on the impact of international crude oil price volatility on various economic variables in China with a hypothesis that international crude oil price affected Chinese crude oil price first and then other economic variables. However, there has been little research to explore whether or not international and Chinese oil market are integrated. This study aims to investigate the relationship between Chinese and international crude oil prices by VAR and VEC-TARCH models. It was found that the two crude oil markets have been integrated gradually. But the impact of external shocks on the Chinese crude oil market was stronger and the Chinese crude oil price was sensitive to changes in international crude oil price, implying that the centrally controlled oil market in China is less capable of coping with external risk. In addition, the volatility of both Chinese and international crude oil prices was mainly transmitted by prior fluctuation forecast and the impact of external shocks was limited, demonstrating that in both cases volatility would disappear rather slowly. Furthermore, Chinese and international crude oil markets have established a stable relationship. When the direction of external shocks on the two variables’ respective stochastic term was consistent, the impact on the two variables’ joint volatility was aggravated and vice versa.

The prime objective of this research is to investigate the impact of dividend policy on share price volatility in Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). A sample of 81 listed non -financial firms from CSE in Sri Lanka is examined using panel data analysis for a five years period from 2013 to 2017. Dividend policy of the firms has been measured by dividend pay-out, dividend yield and dividend per share and which are explanatory variables of the study after controlling for firm size and financial leverage. According to the random effect regression analysis, only 25% of the movements in share prices are explained by the explanatory variables considered in this study. Dividend yield shows significant positive impact on share price volatility whereas dividend per share shows the significant negative impact on share price movements. Firm size illustrates significant negative influence on share price volatility by indicating large size of companies share price volatility is high. But, dividend pay-out and financial leverage are not significantly persuaded on share price volatility in this study. Therefore, it is concluded that dividend yield, dividend per share and firm size have significant impact on price volatility in Sri Lankan context and findings of the study are in line with the dividend relevance theory. Dividend policy can be considered as the protective mechanism to maintain share price volatility in order to enhance the shareholders wealth.

The Russian economy is emerging, meaning that natural resources play a dominant role in economic development. Given the considerable volatility in resource prices, we investigate the volatility spillovers among policy uncertainty, international oil prices, exchange rate, stock index and metal prices covering the period of 2 July 2008 to 15 May 2020 for the Russian economy applying Dynamic Connectedness based on Time-Varying Parameter Vector Autoregression (TVP-VAR). Our empirical investigation demonstrates that gold price, Russian policy uncertainty, oil price and stock index are net volatility contributors, whereas palladium, platinum, silver and exchange rate are net volatilities receivers. Market capitalisation and silver market are found to be the highest net contributor and net receiver, respectively. The palladium appears as a net volatility receiver initially, just after the global financial crisis. The Russian economic policy uncertainty appears to be the dominant volatility contributor from 2008 to 2014, but onward it turned to be a net volatility receiver. Over the year 2014, gold price was the prominent volatility contributor to another market when the oil price dropped significantly. The total connectivity of the markets are highly anchored with several exogenous shocks, including economic sanction, adoption of floating exchange rate, oil price plunge. Our empirical findings provide several policy implications to portfolio managers and Russian regional stakeholders.

The aim of this paper was to study the coffee and cocoa price volatility in C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire and to understand the mechanism of price stabilization. Thus, this paper shows that the international prices and the farm gate prices of these two products are strongly dispersed around their respective average, from one year to another and within each year. This paper proposes a model of partial stabilization which makes it possible to highlight an alternate mechanism of the coffee and cocoa price stabilization which is relatively efficient compared to the mechanism which currently exists. It shows that a marketing board in the Ivorian coffee and cocoa sector, which constitutes a buffer stock and uses it in a strategic way, has the advantage of reducing significantly the volatility of the international price and the farm gate price. &nbsp;

This paper develops a pricing model and derives a closed-form formula for valuing mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) that embed a barrier option feature while the optimal prepayment or refinancing choices of borrowers are endogenously determined. Given that ¡§real estate investors¡¨ tend to prepay a loan relentlessly, an MBS with a high concentration of investor borrowers implies a lower MBS value. We specify the prepayment behavior of borrowers by using the first hitting time as a proxy for the trigger point of prepayment when house prices or interest rates hit a pre-determined barrier. Our results show that the MBS value is positively related to loan to value and house price volatility while negatively related to the proportion of real estate investors and interest rate volatility. We also find evidence which shows that the MBS value may increase due to the effects of the ¡§longevity¡¨ of mortgages, which outweigh the effects of default or prepayment as house price volatility increases. This model provides a faster pricing tool of MBSs than Monte Carlo simulation while retaining higher model accuracy and consistency than the hazard model approach.

This study aims to determine the volatility and market integration between the price of corn in the Indonesian spot market and futures market in the international market. The data used in this research is secondary data consisting of Indonesian corn spot price and corn forward price referring commodity exchange, Chicago. Data in the form of monthly time series in 2007 until 2016. ARCH / GARCH method is used to measure the volatility at spot and forward price, whereas the market integration of spot and forward corn is used Johansen Cointegration and Engel-Granger Causality method. The results show that spot and forward prices of corn occur high volatility. The best ARCH/GARCH model for spot price is GARCH (2,0) with the volatility value of 0,91 and for forward price is GARCH (2,0) with the volatility value of 1.12. It means that volatility of spot and forward influenced by the increase and fluctuations of spot and forward price two previous periods. Between the spot and forward market, there is market integration and a one-way causal relationship. The market integration indicates there is long-run relationship, while one way indicates the spot price effect on the forward price, not vice versa.

Unlike traditional financial crises, COVID-19 is a global public health crisis with a significant negative impact on the global economy. Meanwhile, the stock market has been hit hard, and corporate share prices have become more volatile. However, the stock prices of some enterprises with good performance of ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) are relatively stable in the epidemic. This paper selects ESG rating data from MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) with better differentiation, adopts multiple regression and dummy variables, and adopts the Differences-in-Differences (DID)model with the help of COVID-19, an exogenous event. Empirical test the impact of ESG performance on the company’s stock price fluctuations. The results show that the stock price volatility of companies with good ESG performance is lower than that of companies with poor performance. Second, COVID-19 exacerbates volatility in company stock prices, but the increase in stock price volatility of companies with good ESG performance is small. That is, good ESG performance helps reduce the increase in stock price volatility due to COVID-19 shock, and plays a role in enhancing “resilience” and stabilizing stock prices. This paper provides new empirical evidence for the study of ESG performance and corporate stock price volatility, and puts forward relevant policy recommendations for enterprises and government departments.

This study aims to analyze the best model to expect volatility of Indonesia’s coffee price using ARCH/GARCH model and to measure the coffee price volatility spillover of International market for Indonesia’s coffee price using EGARCH model. These models use different conditional variance specifications to catch up the asymmetry. The empirical results show that GARCH (1.1) model seems to better describe the Indonesia’s coffee price volatility. From the EGARCH analysis known that International coffee price has an asymmetric effect on Indonesia’s return coffee price and indicate that domestic coffee market is not efficient.

This research aimed to investigate whether and how the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has affected the synchronicity of stock prices in the Brazilian capital market and how this was reflected in the behavior of idiosyncratic and systematic risk. In order to do so, it was first conducted a regression analysis associating the Transition (2008 and 2009) and the Post-Adoption (from 2010) period with a measure of stock price synchronicity, controlling for structural aspects that affect the functioning of stock markets as a whole and for aspects of individual firms that affect the process of incorporating information into their stock prices and their incentives to report transparent financial statements. Then, it was built series of volatility decomposed into two components, market-wide (capturing the systematic risk) and firm-specific (capturing the idiosyncratic risk), according to the methodology of Campbell et al. (2001), and performed an analysis based on tests for identifying trends on the series. The study predicted that if IFRS was able to increase the amount of firm-specific information incorporated into stock prices, it could (i) reduce synchronicity (J. Kim & Shi, 2012), and idiosyncratic volatility would have become more intense relatively to systematic volatility; or (ii) it could increase synchronicity (Beuselinck et al., 2010; Dasgupta et al., 2010), and idiosyncratic volatility would, then, have become less intense. The results confirmed that stock price synchronicity has decreased from the Post-Adoption period, in line with the view of J. Kim & Shi (2012), that the reducing effect can be more intense for less developed countries, which tend to be more synchronous (Morck et al, 2000) and because the improvement in the informational environment acts as a substitute to the weak institutional environment. These results indicate that stock prices became more informative (Durnev, Morck, & Yeung, 2004), making the market less obscure (K. Li et al., 2003) and better able to efficiently allocate resources (Wurgler, 2000; Habib, 2008). However, although a visual analysis of the volatility series suggests a slightly upward trend for the firm-level series, the statistical tests were not able to identify any significant trend, so, only the first part of the hypothesis could be confirmed. Nevertheless, despite of this limitation and the possible caveats with the models that were used, this research provides evidence that IFRS adoption brought positive changes to the functioning of the Brazilian capital market.
Esta pesquisa buscou investigar se, e de que forma, a adoção dos International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) afetou a sincronicidade dos preços das ações no mercado de capitais brasileiro e como isso se refletiu no comportamento dos riscos idiossincrático e sistemático. Para tanto, foi feita uma análise de regressão associando o período de Transição (2008 e 2009) e o de Pós-Adoção (a partir de 2010) com uma medida de sincronicidade dos preços das ações, controlando por aspectos estruturais que afetam o funcionamento do mercado de capitais e por aspectos individuais das firmas que afetam a incorporação de informações em seus preços e seus incentivos para reportar demonstrações financeiras transparentes. Em seguida, foram construídas séries de volatilidade decompostas em dois componentes: o mercado em geral (capturando o risco sistemático) e específica da firma (capturando o risco idiossincrático), segundo a metodologia de Campbell et al. (2001), e foi feita uma análise baseada em testes para identificar tendências nessas séries. O estudo previa que se a adoção das IFRS foi capaz de aumentar a quantidade de informação específica das firmas incorporada nos preços das ações, então ela poderia (i) diminuir a sincronicidade (J. Kim & Shi, 2012), e a volatilidade idiossincrática teria se tornado mais intensa em relação à volatilidade sistemática; ou (ii) ela poderia aumentar a sincronicidade (Beuselinck et al., 2010; Dasgupta et al., 2010), e a volatilidade idiossincrática teria, então, se tornado menos intensa. Os resultados confirmaram que a sincronicidade diminuiu a partir do período de Pós-Adoção, em consonância com a visão de J. Kim & Shi (2012), de que o efeito redutor pode ser mais intenso para países menos desenvolvidos, que tendem a ter mercados mais sincronizados (Morck et al, 2000) e porque a melhora no ambiente informacional funciona como uma substituta para o ambiente institucional fraco. Esse resultado indica que os preços das ações se tornaram mais informativos (Durnev, Morck, & Yeung, 2004), tornando o mercado menos obscuro (K. Li et al., 2003) e melhor capaz de alocar recursos eficientemente (Wurgler, 2000; Habib, 2008). No entanto, apesar de uma análise visual das séries de volatilidade mostrar uma leve tendência crescente para a série do nível da firma, os testes estatísticos não puderam identificar qualquer tendência significativa, então, somente a primeira parte da hipótese pôde ser confirmada. Contudo, apesar dessa limitação e das possíveis ressalvas quanto aos modelos que foram usados, esta pesquisa fornece evidências de que a adoção das IFRS trouxe mudanças positivas para o funcionamento do mercado de capitais brasileiro.

Since the early 1970s, the U.S. government has relied on Saudi Arabia to ensure price stability in the oil market--a foreign policy that is both dangerous and hypocritical. Yet recent market developments, including increasing sources of unconventional supply in the Western Hemisphere and better energy efficiency worldwide, are calling the effectiveness of that reliance into question. Whereas unconditional support for the Saudi regime had previously been the only option for the U.S. government, U.S. foreign policymakers may now be able to hedge their risky relationship with the Saudis through a variety of other options.

The thesis considers the effect of world trade or commodity price volatility on small open economies. It extends the existing literature by including non-tradeable goods and many volatile prices in the model together with consideration of the welfare effects of participation in international risk or capital markets. In addition the thesis systematically addresses the implications of price volatility for resource allocation and presents empirical estimates of the costs and benefits of volatility for a large sample of countries. The most important theme in the analysis is the extent of output flexibility in the face of variable prices. It is shown that price volatility gives rise to high returns to flexibility which suggests that commodity exporting countries should regard price volatility as an opportunity to benefit by being flexible as well as a source of welfare costs. The empirical estimates show that many developing countries have had an inflexible response to changes in world prices over the period 1958-90. Flexibility may improve with the abolition of producer price stabilisation in many countries in the 1980s, a policy reform that is predicted to yield large benefits. These will increase if attempts are also made to improve the functioning of domestic risk and capital markets together with enhanced access to their international equivalents.

There is a large body of research that indicates that international equity markets co-move over time. This co-movement manifests in various instruments, ranging from equities and bonds to soft commodities. However, this co-movement is more prevalent over crisis periods and can be seen in returns and volatility transmission effects. The recent financial crisis demonstrated that no local market is immune to transmission effects from international markets. South African financial market participants, such as investors and policymakers, have a vested interest in understanding how the equity market in particular and the economy in general react to international financial crises. This study aims to contribute an improved understanding of how the South African equity market interacts with international equity markets, by identifying the degree of price and volatility transmission before, during, and after an international financial crisis. This was done by investigating the possibility of changes in price and volatility transmissions from the Asian financial crisis (1997–1998), the dotcom bubble (2000–2001) and the more recent subprime financial crisis (2007–2009). An Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (E-GARCH) model was employed within the framework of an Aggregate Shock model. The results indicate that during the international financial crises studied, the JSE All Share Index was directly affected through contagion effects inherent in the returns of the originating crisis country. Volatility transmissions during international financial crises came directly from the originating crisis country. Finally, the FTSE 100 Index was the main exporter of price and volatility transmission to the JSE All Share Index.
Thesis (M.Com. (Risk management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

This study uses a random coefficient estimation procedure to test the hypothesis that much of the volatility in the U.S./Canada real exchange rate over the time period 1971 through 1999 is due to the relative price of non-traded goods to traded goods. The model specification used in this study provides estimates of the sensitivity of movements in the U.S./Canada real exchange rate to movements in both the relative price of traded goods and the relative price of non-traded goods to traded goods in each of the two countries. I test for purchasing power parity in each of the two components of the model and address the question of volatility through the examination of the time profile of the respective coefficient estimates. The empirical results support the conclusion that the average value of the coefficient on the relative price of non-traded goods to traded goods component is smaller than that on the relative price of traded goods component. However, purchasing power parity in both components can not be rejected when the period of study is limited to 1971 through 1994. Furthermore, examination of the time profile of the random coefficients on the relative price of non-traded goods to traded goods component suggests that it is much more volatile and, therefore, quite significant in capturing the volatility in U.S./Canada real exchange rate movements. With regard to purchasing power parity in both the traded goods component and the non-traded goods to traded goods component, these results are consistent with the implications of the theory of purchasing power parity. However, they are not entirely consistent with the evidence presented in recent literature. Specifically, evidence presented in recent studies can not support perfect purchasing power parity in either traded goods or non-traded goods and leads to the conclusion that non-traded goods are much less significant, if at all, in the determination of the U.S./Canada real exchange rate. This inconsistency with recent literature is most likely a result of the fact that the random coefficient modeling technique used in this study allows the coefficients to vary over time and, thereby, enables the volatility of both components to be captured in the model. Therefore, given the apparent significance of the relative price of non-traded goods to traded goods, the volatility of this component can logically be expected to significantly contribute to the volatility in the U.S./Canada real exchange rate.
Master of Arts

[Truncated abstract] Given the theoretical and historical evidence that support the benefit of investing internationally. there is Iittle knowledge available of proper international portfolio construction in terms of how much should be invested in foreign countries, which countries should be targeted, and types of assets to be included in the portfolio. The prospects of these benefits depend on the market volatilities, cross-country correlations, and currency risks to change in the future. Another important issue in international portfolio diversification is the growth of newly emerging markets which have different characteristics from the developed ones. Addressing the issues, the thesis intends to investigate the nature of volatility, conditional correlations, and the impact of currency risks in international portfolio, both in developed and emerging markets. Chapter 2 provides literature review on volatility spillovers, conditional correlations, and forecasting both VaR and conditional correlations using GARCH-type models. Attention is made on the estimated models, type of assets, regions of markets, and tests of forecasts. Chapter 3 investigates the nature of volatility spillovers across intemational assets, which is important in determining the nature of portfolio's volatility when most assets are seems to be connected. ... The impacts of incorporating volatility spillovers and asymmetric effect on the forecast performance of conditional correlation will also be examined in this thesis. The VARMA-AGARCH of McAleer, Hoti and Chan (2008) and the VARMA-GARCH model of Ling and McAleer (2003) will be estimated to accommodate volatility spillovers and asymmetric effect. The CCC model of Bollerslev (1990) will also be estimated as benchmark as the model does not incorporate both volatility spillovers and asymmetric effects. Given the information about the nature of conditional correlations resulted from the forecasts using a rolling window technique, Section 2 of Chapter 4 investigates the nature of conditional correlations by estimating two multivariate GARCH models allowing for time-varying conditional correlations, namely the DCC model of Engle (2002) and the GARCC model of McAleer et al. (2008). Chapter 5 conducts VaR forecast considering the important role of VaR as a standard tool for risk management. Especially, the chapter investigates whether volatility spillovers and time-varying conditional correlations discussed in the previous two chapters are of helps in providing better VaR forecasts. The BEKK model of Engle and Kroner (1995) and the DCC model of Engle (2002) will be estimated to incorporate volatility spillovers and conditional correlations, respectively. The DVEC model of Bollerslev et al. (1998) and the CCC model of Bollerslev (1990) will be estimated to serve benchmarks, as both models do not incorporate both volatility spillovers and timevarying conditional correlations. Chapter 6 concludes the thesis and lists somc possible future research.

The current study examines the extent and magnitude by which global and regional shocks are transmitted to the volatility of returns in the stock markets of South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Botswana, Mauritius and Egypt. This is done so as to make inferences on the level of the domestic market‟s integration into the regional and world capital markets. By applying multivariate and univariate GARCH models, using weekly data from June 1995 to May 2010, the main empirical findings are threefold. Firstly, the volatility analytical framework finds statistically significant and time-varying volatility spillover effects from the regional and global markets to the South African market. Global shocks are generally stronger and account for up to 23.9 percent of the volatility of South Africa‟s equity market compared to weaker regional factors which account for less than 1 percent of domestic variance. Only in countries with strong bilateral trade and economic links with South Africa, such as Botswana and Namibia, is it found that regional factors are more dominant than global factors for domestic volatility. Compared to the other African markets, the joint influence of foreign shocks on domestic volatility is highest in South Africa and Egypt, two of Africa‟s largest and most developed markets. The results further demonstrate that for all the African markets the explanatory power of both regional and global factors for domestic volatility is not constant over time and tends to increase during turbulent market periods. Secondly, the analysis of the determinants of South frica‟s second moment linkages with the global market suggests that the volatility of the exchange rate plays a cardinal role in influencing the magnitude by which global shocks affect domestic volatility. The increased global integration in the second moments cannot be attributed to either increased trade integration, convergence in inflation rates or to convergence in interest rates between South Africa and the global markets. Lastly, tests were conducted to examine whether there have been contagion effects from the regional and global markets to South Africa from the 1997 Asian crisis and the 2007/8 global financial crisis. The results show no evidence of contagion during either the East Asian currency crisis or the recent global financial crisis to South Africa, while some African markets, such as Egypt, Mauritius and Botswana, exhibit contagion effects from either crisis. Overall, the empirical findings generally support the view that African markets are segmented both at the regional and global levels as domestic volatility is more influenced by local idiosyncratic shocks (the proportion not attributable to either global and regional factors). However, the volatility of South Africa, and to a lesser extent Egypt, remains relatively more open to global influence. This implies that the potential for gains from international portfolio diversification and the scope for success of policies aimed at the stabilisation of equity markets in these markets exist.

Last two decades witnessed increasingly volatile international markets with the many financial crises. Concurrently, volatility in energy prices and energy markets cause various adverse impacts on both national and world economies. Especially this volatility affected emerging markets and increased the fragility of the emerging economies. Because of the adverse impacts of this volatility, understanding the price behavior and impact of volatility of energy prices on economy became crucial for every economic agent in the economy including policy makers in the governments, consumers, and producers. The relationship between energy prices and macroeconomic performance has been studied widely as a consequence its long term macroeconomic impacts to world economies. Differently, the aim of this study is analyzing the effect of energy price volatility on macroeconomic indicators of Turkey. For that purpose, we employed a GARCH model to investigate effect of energy price volatility on macroeconomic performance for Turkey from 2002 to 2016. We use various energy prices and macroeconomic indicators data for the period from January 2002 to December 2016, obtained from the IFS and CBRT-EDDS. By applying GARCH methodology to various energy prices and macroeconomic indicators, we contribute to the understanding of price volatility in energy markets, and suggest policies that would be of use to policy makers in the governments, consumers, and producers.

Motivated by agricultural commodity price fluctuations and spikes in the last decade, we investigate whether financial speculation destabilizes the price of agricultural commodities. The aim of this research is to assess the impact of financial speculation on agricultural commodity price volatility. In our study we use weekly returns on wheat, soybean and corn futures from Chicago Mercantile of Exchange. To measure this impact, we apply autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) technique. We also propose a model with seasonal dummy variables to measure if financial speculation impact on price volatility differs among seasons. The results of our research indicate that financial speculation as an exogenous factor has either no effect or reduces the volatility of the underlying futures prices. Therefore, we conclude that the increase of non-commercial market participants does not make the agricultural commodity prices more volatile or this link is at least questionable.

We study neural network approximation of the solution to boundary value problem for Black-ScholesMerton partial differential equation for a European call option price, when model volatility is afunction of underlying asset price and time (local volatility model). Strike-price and expiry day of theoption are assumed to be fixed. An approximation to option price in local volatility model is obtainedvia deep learning with deep Galerkin method (DGM), making use of the neural network of specialarchitecture and stochastic gradient descent on a sequence of random time and underlying price points.Architecture of the neural network and the algorithm of its training for option pricing in local volatilitymodels are described in detail. Computational experiment with DGM neural network is performed toevaluate the quality of neural network approximation for hyperbolic sine local volatility model withknown exact closed form option price. The quality of the neural network approximation is estimatedwith mean absolute error, mean squared error and coefficient of determination. The computationalexperiment demonstrates that DGM neural network approximation converges to a European calloption price of the local volatility model with acceptable accuracy.

Considering rapidly evolving technology and effective markets, wherein information and news are quickly and effectively reflected in financial asset prices, the positions of investors trading in financial markets regarding financial asset prices vary according to the continuous stream of information coming to the market. However, markets are not fully efficient in terms of maintaining a long memory that enables future pricing estimates based on the past market price of the financial asset. Revealing the existence of a long memory structure is essential to the development of monetary policies since exchange rates that tend to return to average exert high resistance. In this study, the exchange rate’s long-range dependence is determined in the scope of the log-periodogram estimator and using a fractional model structure, the average model, and the variance model structure related to the exchange rate between February 22, 2001–March 16, 2020 are examined. In this context, the parameters in the model allow an examination of the long memory process. According to the fractionally integrated exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model, it is determined that the effects of shocks in the exchange rate market continue and persist for a long period. Policy suggestions within the scope of exchange rates are evaluated within model outputs.

Macroeconomic summary Several factors contributed to an increase in projected inflation on the forecast horizon, keeping it above the target rate. These included inflation in December that surpassed expectations (5.62%), indexation to higher inflation rates for various baskets in the consumer price index (CPI), a significant real increase in the legal minimum wage, persistent external and domestic inflationary supply shocks, and heightened exchange rate pressures. The CPI for foods was affected by the persistence of external and domestic supply shocks and was the most significant contributor to unexpectedly high inflation in the fourth quarter. Price adjustments for fuels and certain utilities can explain the acceleration in inflation for regulated items, which was more significant than anticipated. Prices in the CPI for goods excluding food and regulated items also rose more than expected. This was partly due to a smaller effect on prices from the national government’s VAT-free day than anticipated by the technical staff and more persistent external pressures, including via peso depreciation. By contrast, the CPI for services excluding food and regulated items accelerated less than expected, partly reflecting strong competition in the communications sector. This was the only major CPI basket for which prices increased below the target inflation rate. The technical staff revised its inflation forecast upward in response to certain external shocks (prices, costs, and depreciation) and domestic shocks (e.g., on meat products) that were stronger and more persistent than anticipated in the previous report. Observed inflation and a real increase in the legal minimum wage also exceeded expectations, which would boost inflation by affecting price indexation, labor costs, and inflation expectations. The technical staff now expects year-end headline inflation of 4.3% in 2022 and 3.4% in 2023; core inflation is projected to be 4.5% and 3.6%, respectively. These forecasts consider the lapse of certain price relief measures associated with the COVID-19 health emergency, which would contribute to temporarily keeping inflation above the target on the forecast horizon. It is important to note that these estimates continue to contain a significant degree of uncertainty, mainly related to the development of external and domestic supply shocks and their ultimate effects on prices. Other contributing factors include high price volatility and measurement uncertainty related to the extension of Colombia’s health emergency and tax relief measures (such as the VAT-free days) associated with the Social Investment Law (Ley de Inversión Social). The as-yet uncertain magnitude of the effects of a recent real increase in the legal minimum wage (that was high by historical standards) and high observed and expected inflation, are additional factors weighing on the overall uncertainty of the estimates in this report. The size of excess productive capacity remaining in the economy and the degree to which it is closing are also uncertain, as the evolution of the pandemic continues to represent a significant forecast risk. margin, could be less dynamic than expected. And the normalization of monetary policy in the United States could come more quickly than projected in this report, which could negatively affect international financing costs. Finally, there remains a significant degree of uncertainty related to the duration of supply chocks and the degree to which macroeconomic and political conditions could negatively affect the recovery in investment. The technical staff revised its GDP growth projection for 2022 from 4.7% to 4.3% (Graph 1.3). This revision accounts for the likelihood that a larger portion of the recent positive dynamic in private consumption would be transitory than previously expected. This estimate also contemplates less dynamic investment behavior than forecast in the previous report amid less favorable financial conditions and a highly uncertain investment environment. Third-quarter GDP growth (12.9%), which was similar to projections from the October report, and the fourth-quarter growth forecast (8.7%) reflect a positive consumption trend, which has been revised upward. This dynamic has been driven by both public and private spending. Investment growth, meanwhile, has been weaker than forecast. Available fourth-quarter data suggest that consumption spending for the period would have exceeded estimates from October, thanks to three consecutive months that included VAT-free days, a relatively low COVID-19 caseload, and mobility indicators similar to their pre-pandemic levels. By contrast, the most recently available figures on new housing developments and machinery and equipment imports suggest that investment, while continuing to rise, is growing at a slower rate than anticipated in the previous report. The trade deficit is expected to have widened, as imports would have grown at a high level and outpaced exports. Given the above, the technical staff now expects fourth-quarter economic growth of 8.7%, with overall growth for 2021 of 9.9%. Several factors should continue to contribute to output recovery in 2022, though some of these may be less significant than previously forecast. International financial conditions are expected to be less favorable, though external demand should continue to recover and terms of trade continue to increase amid higher projected oil prices. Lower unemployment rates and subsequent positive effects on household income, despite increased inflation, would also boost output recovery, as would progress in the national vaccination campaign. The technical staff expects that the conditions that have favored recent high levels of consumption would be, in large part, transitory. Consumption spending is expected to grow at a slower rate in 2022. Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) would continue to recover, approaching its pre-pandemic level, though at a slower rate than anticipated in the previous report. This would be due to lower observed GFCF levels and the potential impact of political and fiscal uncertainty. Meanwhile, the policy interest rate would be less expansionary as the process of monetary policy normalization continues. Given the above, growth in 2022 is forecast to decelerate to 4.3% (previously 4.7%). In 2023, that figure (3.1%) is projected to converge to levels closer to the potential growth rate. In this case, excess productive capacity would be expected to tighten at a similar rate as projected in the previous report. The trade deficit would tighten more than previously projected on the forecast horizon, due to expectations of an improved export dynamic and moderation in imports. The growth forecast for 2022 considers a low basis of comparison from the first half of 2021. However, there remain significant downside risks to this forecast. The current projection does not, for example, account for any additional effects on economic activity resulting from further waves of COVID-19. High private consumption levels, which have already surpassed pre-pandemic levels by a large margin, could be less dynamic than expected. And the normalization of monetary policy in the United States could come more quickly than projected in this report, which could negatively affect international financing costs. Finally, there remains a significant degree of uncertainty related to the duration of supply chocks and the degree to which macroeconomic and political conditions could negatively affect the recovery in investment. External demand for Colombian goods and services should continue to recover amid significant global inflation pressures, high oil prices, and less favorable international financial conditions than those estimated in October. Economic activity among Colombia’s major trade partners recovered in 2021 amid countries reopening and ample international liquidity. However, that growth has been somewhat restricted by global supply chain disruptions and new outbreaks of COVID-19. The technical staff has revised its growth forecast for Colombia’s main trade partners from 6.3% to 6.9% for 2021, and from 3.4% to 3.3% for 2022; trade partner economies are expected to grow 2.6% in 2023. Colombia’s annual terms of trade increased in 2021, largely on higher oil, coffee, and coal prices. This improvement came despite increased prices for goods and services imports. The expected oil price trajectory has been revised upward, partly to supply restrictions and lagging investment in the sector that would offset reduced growth forecasts in some major economies. Elevated freight and raw materials costs and supply chain disruptions continue to affect global goods production, and have led to increases in global prices. Coupled with the recovery in global demand, this has put upward pressure on external inflation. Several emerging market economies have continued to normalize monetary policy in this context. Meanwhile, in the United States, the Federal Reserve has anticipated an end to its asset buying program. U.S. inflation in December (7.0%) was again surprisingly high and market average inflation forecasts for 2022 have increased. The Fed is expected to increase its policy rate during the first quarter of 2022, with quarterly increases anticipated over the rest of the year. For its part, Colombia’s sovereign risk premium has increased and is forecast to remain on a higher path, to levels above the 15-year-average, on the forecast horizon. This would be partly due to the effects of a less expansionary monetary policy in the United States and the accumulation of macroeconomic imbalances in Colombia. Given the above, international financial conditions are projected to be less favorable than anticipated in the October report. The increase in Colombia’s external financing costs could be more significant if upward pressures on inflation in the United States persist and monetary policy is normalized more quickly than contemplated in this report. As detailed in Section 2.3, uncertainty surrounding international financial conditions continues to be unusually high. Along with other considerations, recent concerns over the potential effects of new COVID-19 variants, the persistence of global supply chain disruptions, energy crises in certain countries, growing geopolitical tensions, and a more significant deceleration in China are all factors underlying this uncertainty. The changing macroeconomic environment toward greater inflation and unanchoring risks on inflation expectations imply a reduction in the space available for monetary policy stimulus. Recovery in domestic demand and a reduction in excess productive capacity have come in line with the technical staff’s expectations from the October report. Some upside risks to inflation have materialized, while medium-term inflation expectations have increased and are above the 3% target. Monetary policy remains expansionary. Significant global inflationary pressures and the unexpected increase in the CPI in December point to more persistent effects from recent supply shocks. Core inflation is trending upward, but remains below the 3% target. Headline and core inflation projections have increased on the forecast horizon and are above the target rate through the end of 2023. Meanwhile, the expected dynamism of domestic demand would be in line with low levels of excess productive capacity. An accumulation of macroeconomic imbalances in Colombia and the increased likelihood of a faster normalization of monetary policy in the United States would put upward pressure on sovereign risk perceptions in a more persistent manner, with implications for the exchange rate and the natural rate of interest. Persistent disruptions to international supply chains, a high real increase in the legal minimum wage, and the indexation of various baskets in the CPI to higher inflation rates could affect price expectations and push inflation above the target more persistently. These factors suggest that the space to maintain monetary stimulus has continued to diminish, though monetary policy remains expansionary. 1.2 Monetary policy decision Banco de la República’s board of directors (BDBR) in its meetings in December 2021 and January 2022 voted to continue normalizing monetary policy. The BDBR voted by a majority in these two meetings to increase the benchmark interest rate by 50 and 100 basis points, respectively, bringing the policy rate to 4.0%.

In the face of the multiple shocks currently experienced by the domestic economy (resulting from the drop in oil prices and the appearance of a global pandemic), the Colombian financial system is in a position of sound solvency and adequate liquidity. At the same time, credit quality has been recovering and the exposure of credit institutions to firms with currency mismatches has declined relative to previous episodes of sudden drops in oil prices. These trends are reflected in the recent fading of red and blue tonalities in the performance and credit risk segments of the risk heatmaps in Graphs A and B.1 Naturally, the sudden, unanticipated change in macroeconomic conditions has caused the appearance of vulnerabilities for short-term financial stability. These vulnerabilities require close and continuous monitoring on the part of economic authorities. The main vulnerability is the response of credit and credit risk to a potential, temporarily extreme macroeconomic situation in the context of: (i) recently increased exposure of some banks to household sector, and (ii) reductions in net interest income that have led to a decline in the profitability of the banking business in the recent past. Furthermore, as a consequence of greater uncertainty and risk aversion, occasional problems may arise in the distribution of liquidity between agents and financial markets. With regards to local markets, spikes have been registered in the volatility of public and private fixed income securities in recent weeks that are consistent with the behavior of the international markets and have had a significant impact on the liquidity of those instruments (red portions in the most recent past of some market risk items on the map in Graph A). In order to adopt a forward-looking approach to those vulnerabilities, this Report presents a stress test that evaluates the resilience of credit institutions in the event of a hypothetical scenario thatseeks to simulate an extreme version of current macroeconomic conditions. The scenario assumes a hypothetical negative growth that is temporarily strong but recovers going into the middle of the coming year and has extreme effects on credit quality. The results suggest that credit institutions have the ability to withstand a significant deterioration in economic conditions in the short term. Even though there could be a strong impact on credit, liquidity, and profitability under the scenario being considered, aggregate capital ratios would probably remain at above their regulatory limits over the horizon of a year. In this context, the recent measures taken by both Banco de la República and the Office of the Financial Superintendent of Colombia that are intended to help preserve the financial stability of the Colombian economy become highly relevant. In compliance with its constitutional objectives and in coordination with the financial system’s security network, Banco de la República will continue to closely monitor the outlook for financial stability at this juncture and will make the decisions that are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of the economy, facilitate the flow of sufficient credit and liquidity resources, and further the smooth functioning of the payment system. Juan José Echavarría Governor