Many empirical studies show that factor models have a relatively high forecast compared to alternative short-term forecasting models. These empirical findings have been established for different data sets and for different forecast horizons. However, choosing the appropriate factor model...

We conduct a systematic comparison of the short-term forecasting abilities of eleven statistical models and professional analysts in a pseudo-real time setting, using a large set of monthly indicators. Our analysis covers the euro area and its five largest countries over the years 1996-2011. We...