Role of oil price shocks on macroeconomic activities: An SVAR approach to the Malaysian economy and monetary responses

This study examines the impact of oil price uncertainty on Malaysian macroeconomic activities and monetary responses. We use a structural VAR (SVAR) model based on monthly data over the period 1986−2009. The EGARCH model estimates show an important asymmetric effect of oil price shocks on the conditional oil price volatility. Dynamic impulse response functions obtained from the SVAR model show a prolonged dampening effect of oil price volatility shock on Malaysian industrial production. We also find that levels of Consumer Price Index (CPI) decline with a positive shock to oil price uncertainty. This is the result of negative demand shock due to the postponement of consumption of big ticket items by individuals, households and other sectors of the economy. We also found that the Malaysian central bank adopts an expansionary monetary policy in response to oil price uncertainty. Variance decomposition analysis reconfirms that volatility in the oil price is the second most important factor to explain the variance of industrial production after its own shocks. These results shed some light on how the central bank of Malaysia can use controlling mechanisms to stabilize aggregate output and price level.