Short-Term Forecasting of Inflation in Bangladesh with Seasonal ARIMA Processes

The purpose of this study is to forecast the short-term inflation rate of Bangladesh using the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) from January 2000 to December 2012. To do so, the study employed the Seasonal Auto-regressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) models proposed by Box, Jenkins, and Reinsel (1994). CUSUM, Quandt likelihood ratio (QLR) and Chow test have been utilized to identify the structural breaks over the sample periods and all three tests suggested that the structural breaks in CPI series of Bangladesh are in the month of February 2007 and September 2009. Hence, the study truncated the series and using CPI data from September 2009 to December 2012, the ARIMA(1,1,1)(1,0,1)12 models were estimated and forecasted. The forecasted result suggests an increasing pattern and high rates of inflation over the forecasted period 2013. Therefore, the study recommends that Bangladesh Bank should come forward with more appropriate economic and monetary policies in order to combat such increase inflation in 2013.