Core inflation is under attack. Empirically, experts have become increasingly disappointed with its actual performance. Theoretically, while some claim that it is a key inflation predictor others argue that, by construction, that cannot be one of its main properties, at least in the short run....

The unemployment rate is one of the most closely watched economic indicators. However, it has important limitations and shortcomings as a measure of the state of the labour market. This could help to explain the fact that in traditional Phillips curves unemployment explains but a small part of...

After being one the fastest growing countries in the world during the 1940-80 period, with an average growth rate of 6.8%, Brazil has experienced a severe growth slowdown since the 1980s, which coincided with the steep rise in inflation as of 1980. At the same time, real investment rates have...

This paper tests hyperinflation theories using the inflation tax curve. This curve is estimated directly instead of the usual approach which is a by-product of demand for money empirical estimates. The inflation tax functional form encompasses several specifications as particular cases and...

This paper contributes to fill the large existing gap in the literature on the Brazilian natural rate of unemployment. It reveals not only that the correlation between inflation and unemployment has changed radically since the stabilisation of the economy but, more surprisingly, that it has...

The Focus Survey is a cunningly designed economic survey carried out by the Central Bank of Brazil. However, along its existence there have occasionally been some criticisms that its median forecast is “biased” due to allegedly strategic reasons. Although different groups of agents do have...

This paper summarises the research results obtained by the group of central banks (Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela) that joined the research program on the Natural Rate of Unemployment – under the coordination of the Central Bank of Brazil – within the Joint Investigation on Non...

Intuitively core inflation is understood as a measure of inflation where noisy price movements are avoided. This is typically achieved by either excluding or downplaying the importance of the most volatile items. However, some of those items show high persistence, and one certainly does not want...

The attitude towards inflation has changed thoroughly along the last decade. The change was basically motivated by three reasons: a) the high cost resulting from the inflation increase in the 70s and 80s; b) the lower than expected costs of the global disinflation in the 90s; and c) the...

Since 2000, Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) announces measures of core inflation in its Inflation Reports. Throughout this period, the set of measures has been altered as the result of either the evolution of the Brazilian economy or the incorporation of new approaches to measuring core inflation....