Inflation

Post n°290

The pass-through of commodity prices to inflation in Africa

Published on 11/10/2022

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By Thibault Lemaire and Paul Vertier

The rise in world commodity prices since mid-2020 has fuelled inflation in Africa. A new estimation strategy shows a pass-through of about 30% from commodity prices to consumer prices on the continent, which is higher than existing estimates. The impact is greater in low-income countries and in those countries where the food share in the consumption basket is the largest.

Chart 1: Impact of a 1% rise in commodity prices on consumer prices in Africa
Chart 1: Impact of a 1% rise in commodity prices on consumer prices in Africa Source: Authors’ calculations based on the local projection method. Data from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Disaster Database (EM-DAT), and Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).
Updated on 11/10/2022 16:59
Post n°285

What lessons from US evidence on the heterogeneity in inflation expectations?

Published on 10/07/2022

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By Camille Cornand (Univ Lyon, CNRS, GATE), Paul Hubert

Monetary policy consists in part in managing inflation expectations of different agents. New US evidence on heterogeneous frequency of forecast revisions and disagreement among various categories of agents (households, firms, professional forecasters) suggests that targeting communication to specific groups could be a useful tool for central bankers.

Figure 1 – Distribution of inflation expectations in the US
Figure 1 – Distribution of inflation expectations in the US Source: authors’ computations.
Updated on 10/07/2022 08:26
Post n°275

What are business leaders’ inflation expectations?

Published on 06/23/2022

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By Paul Bouche, Julien Demuynck, Erwan Gautier, Frédérique Savignac

For the first time, the Banque de France is publishing the results of a survey on business leaders’ inflation expectations, collected since the end of 2021. One-year inflation expectations have increased since the beginning of the year and their median stands at 5% in the second quarter of 2022. Longer-term expectations (3-5 years) are also rising, but more slowly, with a median of 3%. This survey was conducted prior to the ECB's monetary policy normalisation announced on 9 June, which is expected to contribute to the gradual "re-anchoring" of inflation expectations.

Chart 1: Changes in inflation expectations since end-2021 in France (median in %)
Chart 1: Changes in inflation expectations since end-2021 in France (median in %) Note: median weighted by the number of employees in the company and the value added in the company's sector, 1% of the highest responses are not taken into account in the calculations. Source: IE-Banque de France survey.
Updated on 06/23/2022 16:33
Post n°268

How much have rising transport costs affected US import prices?

Published on 05/11/2022

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By Sebastian Stumpner

This blog post examines to what extent the recent surge in international transport costs has fuelled US import price inflation. While we find a moderate effect at the aggregate level, there are significant differences across products that are largely driven by the degree of containerisation.

Chart 1: The share of transport costs has increased only for containerised goods
Chart 1: The share of transport costs has increased only for containerised goods Source: Author’s calculations based on data from TradeDataMonitor.
Updated on 05/11/2022 18:19
Post n°261

Advantages of point targets and drawbacks of target ranges

Published on 03/15/2022

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By Christoph Grosse Steffen and Magali Marx

A central bank’s inflation objective can be formulated using a point target, a target range or a combination of the two. In this blog, we show the disadvantages of a target range for anchoring inflation expectations and for macroeconomic stabilisation. The analysis thereby underpins the ECB’s adoption of a clear and symmetric 2% inflation point target.

Chart 1: Inflation objectives, Q2 2020
Chart 1: Inflation objectives, Q2 2020 Source: Central bank websites, authors’ illustration.
Updated on 03/15/2022 17:33
Post n°233

How do oil prices pass through to fuel prices?

Published on 10/14/2021

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By Erwan Gautier, Magali Marx and Paul Vertier

A 1% increase in the price of imported refined diesel ultimately translates into a 0.75% increase in the pre-tax price and a 0.3% increase in the pump price of diesel including taxes in France. The adjustment does not occur immediately but is rapid: after one week, the increase in the pre-tax price is 0.45%, i.e. more than 50% of the final pass-through. Prices respond in the same way to an upward or downward shock.

Chart 1: Response of diesel prices to a 1% shock in the commodity cost
Chart 1: Response of diesel prices to a 1% shock in the commodity cost Sources: Ministry for the Ecological and Solidarity Transition, Reuters. Authors' calculations.
Updated on 10/14/2021 18:00
Post n°232

Is the rise in French inflation temporary?

Published on 10/13/2021

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By Yannick Kalantzis and Youssef Ulgazi

The recent rise in French inflation is temporary in nature but could last for a few more quarters. It is linked to a normalisation of prices after the lows seen in 2020, and to the increase in industrial goods and energy prices. After reaching a peak on the back of these temporary effects, inflation should come back to below the 2% mark over the course of 2022.

Chart 1: Banque de France projection for French inflation (Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, %)
Chart 1: Banque de France projection for French inflation (Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, %) Source: INSEE data up to the second quarter of 2021 and for the data point in the third quarter of 2021. Shaded area shows Banque de France projections. For the third quarter, only the inflation figure for July was available at the time of the projections
Updated on 10/13/2021 16:07
Post n°52

Core inflation excluding housing is lower in the US than in the euro area

Published on 03/09/2018

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By Eric Monnet and Angel Gomez

The difference in core inflation between the United States and the euro area is mainly due to housing rents. Since last year’s blogpost on the issue, this feature has become even more blatant: core inflation excluding housing rents is currently lower in the United States than in the euro area, whereas US core inflation is still much higher.

Chart 1: Core inflation vs. core inflation excluding housing rents (quarterly data). Sources: CPI (BLS) for the United States and HICP (Eurostat) for the euro area
Updated on 02/20/2020 17:03
Post n°50

The impact of oil prices on inflation in France and the euro area

Published on 02/28/2018

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By Yannick Kalantzis and Jean-François Ouvrard

A EUR 10 rise in the price of oil results in a 0.4% increase in consumer prices in France and the euro area. A significant part of this rise can be attributed to the non-energy components of the consumer price index. This indirect effect amounts to 0.1 percentage point in the euro area and 0.15 percentage point in France.

Actual inflation and inflation simulated with a constant oil price in the euro area (% change, yoy) Source: Eurostat, authors' calculations. Note: at each date, the oil price is assumed to be constant over the two previous years.
Updated on 02/20/2020 16:17
Post n°49

What is the outlook for negotiated wages in France?

Published on 02/22/2018

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By Erwan GAUTIER

Since 2008, growth in nominal industry-level wage floors in France has slowed progressively. In a near-zero inflation environment, wage floors have risen by less than 1% per year since 2014. Increases in negotiated wages are largely determined by past inflation and by changes in the national minimum wage (NMW). As a result, the upturn in inflation observed in 2017 could lead to slightly stronger growth in nominal negotiated wages in 2018.

Updated on 02/20/2020 16:04

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