Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2020
This article analyses the forecasts of inflation and GDP growth supplied by the individual respondents to the Bank of England's quarterly Survey of External Forecasters, 1996-2005, using a recently released dataset. This comprises a conventional incomplete panel dataset, with an additional dimension arising from the collection of repeated forecasts for the last quarter of each year. This fixed-event forecast structure allows study of the forecast revision process, its weak and strong efficiency, and its relation to macroeconomic news. The collection of density forecasts as well as point forecasts allows study of the revision process of forecast uncertainty.
We are grateful to Colin Ellis, Debbie Lockhart and Rebecca Capuano (Bank of England) for assembling and helping to clean the survey dataset. Readers wishing to gain access to the data should write to the Publications Editor, Inflation Report and Bulletin Division, Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London EC2R 8AH.