Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 July 2021
This study detects a structural break in international consumer price index (CPI) inflation comovement. We estimate the dynamic common factor models with unknown breakpoints of cross-country inflation rates and global price index of all commodities. We identify two global factors from the models: a commodity global factor and a noncommodity global factor. The former is a common factor between national inflation rates and commodity price index growth; the latter is a common factor among national inflation rates. The estimation of 29 countries’ quarterly CPI inflation data from 2001:Q1 to 2018:Q2 shows a one-time break in cross-country inflation dynamics in 2008:Q4. Thereafter, the importance of global factors in explaining the national inflation rates is remarkably increased. Furthermore, the increased global inflation synchronization is mainly driven by the larger role of the noncommodity global factor rather than that of the commodity global factor.
Large part of this study was conducted when the first author was a member of the monetary policy board at the Bank of Korea. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Bank of Korea. The authors thank Min Han in the Bank of Korea for excellent research assistance. Kyu Ho Kang acknowledges financial support by Korea University (K1910631). All remaining errors are our own.