Oil price shocks, exchange rates and output performance in Africa's oil exporting countries.

Abstract

This thesis examines oil price shocks, exchange rates and output performance in a sample of Africa’s Oil-Exporting Countries (AOECs) (Algeria, Egypt, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria). Using quarterly data from 1980 to 2018, it is presented in three separate, but interrelated essays. The first essay presented in chapter three constructs a seven-variable Panel Structural Vector Autoregressive (PSVAR) model with the imposition of short-run restrictions to examine the oil price shocks transmission mechanism. In the same framework, trends in output growth and oil prices are examined and it is established that oil price shocks have statistically significant impacts on output and exchange rates in AOECs. The essay concludes that exchange rates is the channel through which oil price shocks are transmitted to the economy. It is thus recommended that stabilizing exchange rates is vital for sound economic performance in AOECs. The second essay which is presented in chapter four forecasts the AOECs’ exchange rates. Using quarterly data covering 1980 to 2018, it employs Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL). The regression is estimated using data from 1980-2015 and forecasting data from 2016-2018. The forecasting model, which uses various forecasting evaluation criteria, supports the suitability of the model to forecast exchange rates. Furthermore, the results show that forecast combination methods may have a good predicting power on exchange rates. Combined forecasting is therefore recommended as a way to achieve predictive forecasting accuracy in AOECs. Employing a Panel VAR model, the third essay investigates the asymmetric relationship between oil price and output. Using quarterly data from 1980 to 2018, oil prices are decomposed into positive and negative components to examine how output responds. The findings reveal an asymmetric relationship between oil prices and output. They show that, on average, positive oil price shocks positively impact output and this effect remains significant in the long run. The reverse is observed in negative oil price shocks. In terms of magnitude, the study finds that negative oil price shocks impact output at more than double the rate of positive oil price shocks. The results also reveal that low output in AOECs is associated with uncertain variations in oil prices and that an increase in oil prices results in increased inflation, which could result in higher levels of unemployment. This finding is associated with the inadequacy of refining capacity in the AOECs, causing them to import refined fuel at a high cost. It is thus established that the economies of the AOECs are vulnerable to negative oil price shocks that negatively affect exchange rates, while positive oil price shocks positively affect the cost of production. It is on this basis that the study recommends that AOECs should build sufficient external reserves to minimize the impact of negative oil price shocks on exchange rates.