Money - Inflation Nexus in Indonesia: Evidence from a P-Star Analysis

In this paper the effect of excess narrow money (MI) on C PI intlation in Indonesia before, during, and after the Asian crisis is empirically examined. The standard model for the monetary analysis of inflation, i.e. the P-Star model by Hallman-Porter-Small (1991), is applied and tested empirically using quarterly Indonesian data between 1981 and 2002. The empirical model is a Markov switching error correction model. The results show that the two regime P-star model, in terms of excess MI, tracks the long run dynamics of CPI inflation in Indonesia remarkably weIl. Hence, there is an empirical support for the assertion that long run CPI intlation in Indonesia is a monetary phenomenon. In addition, there is evidence of a co-breaking relationship between excess MI and consumer prices in Indonesia during the Asian crisis.