- February 16, 2024
- Posted by: admin
- Categories: Current News, macroeconomic management
MEFMI conducted an eLearning course on Introduction to Macroeconomic Modelling and Forecasting from 5 – 23 June 2023. The main objective of the course was to build practical macroeconomic modelling and forecasting skills among officials to ensure that macroeconomic policy analysis remains consistent with the changing environment.
The course introduced participants to macroeconomic blocks and explained the key theories behind each block. It also took participants through the process of estimating equations, building, and diagnosing a model, and how to conduct macroeconomic forecasts. The knowledge and skills obtained from this course will help improve macroeconomic policy analysis in the region.
The macroeconomic policy environment in developing countries has changed significantly in recent years. Additionally, the frequency and magnitude of shocks that are hitting the region have increased considerably and given the greater integration into the global economy, these shocks are now transmitting to developing countries more rapidly than before. At the same time, the risks associated with climate change are becoming increasingly evident in our economies. Thus, policymakers in the region need to be able to develop operational macroeconomic models to quantify the impact of these developments on the macroeconomy.
However, these models’ development has been hampered by a lack of skills, data, and limited resources. This has restricted the scope of econometric analysis and made it difficult to extract meaningful quantitative information from the available data. Thus, macroeconomic modelling and forecasting is an area that requires substantial capacity development in the MEFMI region. This is evidenced by the repeated requests for capacity building from the member countries and formed the background against which the course was held.
A total of 82 officials from 10 MEFMI member countries participated in the course. Of the 82 participants, 53(65%) were male while 29(35%) were female. The workshop was facilitated by
Mr. Wilson Asiimwe from the Ministry of Finance of Uganda, and Mr. Tawedzerwa Ngundu from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe as well as Dr. Frank Chansa from MEFMI.