Asymmetric cost pass‐through: SVAR analysis for Brazil under inflation targeting regime (1999-2016)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to empirically analyze the peculiarities of the Brazilian economy that may explain the observed low rigidity of the Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA). We investigated the existence of asymmetry in the transmission of prices and heterogeneity in the inflationary dynamics among different sectors of the economy, as well as evaluated the passthrough of the exchange rate, commodity index, and industrial production to consumer prices (IPCA) and producer (Price Index to the Wide Producer [IPA]). The IPCA was split into food and beverages, industrialized products, service provision, and monitored prices. Estimations were performed using symmetric and asymmetric models of Structural Autoregressive Vectors (SVAR). The results indicated that the exchange rate is the most relevant variable in the dynamics of the IPCA, followed by the commodities index. Industrial production was less relevant than external factors, including the model for industrialized products. It was noted a positive asymmetry in the exchange rate pass-through in all IPCA breakdowns. The main conclusion is that cost shocks should not be treated as mere white noises, with a zero average and that, therefore, compensate in time.