Growth Forecasts and News About Monetary Policy
Fisher College of Business Working Paper No. 2020-03-027
Charles A. Dice Working Paper No. 2020-27
35 Pages Posted: 16 Nov 2020 Last revised: 9 Jun 2022
Date Written: April 1, 2022
Abstract
We find that 30-minute changes in bond yields around scheduled Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcements are predictable with the pre-FOMC Blue Chip professionals’ revisions in GDP growth forecasts. A positive pre-FOMC GDP growth revision predicts a contractionary policy news shock (positive change in bond yields), a negative GDP growth revision predicts an expansionary policy news shock (negative change in bond yields). Failing to account for this predictability biases the estimates of monetary policy effects on the economy. First, the Fed’s information effect dissipates as the truly unpredictable policy news shock does not affect professionals’ beliefs about the economy. Second, net policy shock has a more negative impact on actual future GDP than the raw policy shock.
Keywords: monetary policy news, growth forecasts, federal funds futures, predictability
JEL Classification: E43, E52, G12, G17
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation