Do Stock Prices Impact Consumption and Interest Rate in South Africa? Evidence from a Time-Varying Vector Autoregressive Model

This paper investigates the existence of spillovers from stock prices onto consumption and the interest rate for South Africa using a time-varying vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model with stochastic volatility. In this regard, we estimate a three-variable TVP-VAR model comprising of real consumption growth rate, the nominal three-months Treasury bill rate and the growth rate of real stock prices. We find that the impact of a real stock price shocks on consumption is in general positive, with large and significant effects observed at the one-quarter ahead horizon. However, there is also evidence of significant negative spillovers from the stock market to consumption during the financial crisis, at both short and long-horizons. Monetary policy response to stock price shocks has been persistent, and strong especially post-the financial liberalization in 1985, but became weaker during the financial crisis. Overall, we provide evidence of significant time-varying spillovers on consumption and interest rate from the stock market.