Macroeconomic forecasting in the Euro area: Country specific versus area-wide information

This paper compares several time series methods for short-run forecasting of Euro-wide inflation and real activity using data from 1982 to 1997. Forecasts are constructed from univariate autoregressions, vector autoregressions, single equation models that include Euro-wide and US aggregates, and large-model methods in which forecasts are based on estimates of common dynamic factors. Aggregate Euro-wide forecasts are constructed from models that utilize only aggregate Euro-wide variables and by aggregating country-specific models. The results suggest that forecasts constructed by aggregating the country-specific models are more accurate than forecasts constructed using the aggregate data.