DOF needs forecasting model enhancement

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Department of Finance (DOF) to enhance its macroeconomic forecasting model as it said the agency lacks a comprehensive system for consistent policy analysis and forecasting.

- By DERCO ROSAL

This followed the IMF's recent scoping mission in the Philippines to assess the country's macroeconomic forecasting capacity.

"The DOF plays a crucial role in fiscal policy-making but lacks a comprehensive macroeconomic framework for consistent analysis and forecasting," said Fernando L Delgado, Marie Pierre Aquino Coste, Juan S Corrales, Alex Ho, and Felipe Zanna-authors of the high-level summary technical assistance report, published on March 28.

"Despite having a version of the IMF's Globally Integrated Monetary and Fiscal (GIMF) model, the DOF staff lacks the training to recalibrate or modify it," the IMF said.