Are the Bank of Korea's Inflation Forecasts Biased Toward the Target?

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Seong, Eunkyu, Lee, Seojeong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Seong, Eunkyu
Lee, Seojeong
author_facet Seong, Eunkyu
Lee, Seojeong
contents The Bank of Korea (BoK) regularly publishes the Economic Outlook, offering forecasts for key macroeconomic variables such as GDP growth, inflation, and unemployment rates. This study examines whether the BoK's inflation forecasts exhibit bias, specifically a tendency to align with its inflation target. We extend the Holden and Peel (1990) test to incorporate state-dependency, defining the state of the economy based on whether realized inflation falls below the target at the time of the forecast. Our analysis reveals that the BoK's inflation forecasts are biased under this state-dependent framework. Furthermore, we examine a range of bias correction strategies based on AR(1) and mean error models, including their state-dependent variants. These strategies generally improve forecast accuracy. Among them, the AR(1)-based correction exhibits relatively stable performance, consistently reducing the root mean square error.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_16068
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Are the Bank of Korea's Inflation Forecasts Biased Toward the Target?
Seong, Eunkyu
Lee, Seojeong
General Economics
Economics
The Bank of Korea (BoK) regularly publishes the Economic Outlook, offering forecasts for key macroeconomic variables such as GDP growth, inflation, and unemployment rates. This study examines whether the BoK's inflation forecasts exhibit bias, specifically a tendency to align with its inflation target. We extend the Holden and Peel (1990) test to incorporate state-dependency, defining the state of the economy based on whether realized inflation falls below the target at the time of the forecast. Our analysis reveals that the BoK's inflation forecasts are biased under this state-dependent framework. Furthermore, we examine a range of bias correction strategies based on AR(1) and mean error models, including their state-dependent variants. These strategies generally improve forecast accuracy. Among them, the AR(1)-based correction exhibits relatively stable performance, consistently reducing the root mean square error.
title Are the Bank of Korea's Inflation Forecasts Biased Toward the Target?
topic General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16068