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The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 98 No. 5 2016

Measuring the Level and Uncertainty of Trend Inflation

Elmar Mertens1,2

1 Federal Reserve · 2 Federal Reserve Board of Governors

open access

Abstract

Firmly anchored inflation expectations are widely viewed as playing a central role for the conduct of monetary policy. This paper presents estimates of trend inflation, based on information contained in monthly data on realized inflation, survey expectations, and the term structure of interest rates. In order to assess whether inflation expectations are anchored, a timevarying volatility of trend shocks is estimated as well. While there is some commonality in inflation- and survey-based estimates of trend inflation, yield-based trend estimates embed a highly persistent component orthogonal to trend inflation. Trimmed-mean inflation rates and survey forecasts are most indicative of trend inflation.

DOI
10.1162/rest_a_00549
Volume
98
Issue
5
Pages
950-967
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

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