Forecasting CPI inflation under economic policy and geopolitical uncertainties

Shovon Sengupta, Tanujit Chakraborty and Sunny Kumar Singh

International Journal of Forecasting, 2025, vol. 41, issue 3, 953-981

Abstract: Forecasting consumer price index (CPI) inflation is of paramount importance for both academics and policymakers at central banks. This study introduces the filtered ensemble wavelet neural network (FEWNet) to forecast CPI inflation, tested in BRIC countries. FEWNet decomposes inflation data into high- and low-frequency components using wavelet transforms, and incorporates additional economic factors, such as economic policy uncertainty and geopolitical risk, to enhance forecast accuracy. These wavelet-transformed series and filtered exogenous variables are input into downstream autoregressive neural networks, producing the final ensemble forecast. Theoretically, we demonstrate that FEWNet reduces empirical risk compared to fully connected autoregressive neural networks. Empirically, FEWNet outperforms other forecasting methods and effectively estimates prediction uncertainty, due to its ability to capture non-linearities and long-range dependencies through its adaptable architecture. Consequently, FEWNet emerges as a valuable tool for central banks to manage inflation and enhance monetary policy decisions.

Keywords: Inflation forecasting; Wavelets; Neural networks; Empirical risk minimization; Conformal prediction intervals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:intfor:v:41:y:2025:i:3:p:953-981

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2024.08.005

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