Is macroeconomic uncertainty bad for macroeconomic performance? Evidence from five Asian countries

We use a very general bivariate GARCH-M model and quarterly data for five Asian countries to test for the impact of real and nominal macroeconomic uncertainty on inflation and output growth. Our evidence supports a number of important conclusions. First, in the majority of countries uncertainty regarding the output growth rate is related negatively to the average growth rate. Second, contrary to expectations, inflation uncertainty in most cases does not harm the output growth performance of an economy. Third, inflation and output uncertainty have a mixed effect on inflation. These results imply that macroeconomic uncertainty may even improve macroeconomic performance, i.e., raise output growth and reduce inflation.