The Recent Inflation Crisis and Long-run Economic Growth in India: An Empirical Survey of Threshold Level of Inflation

Abstract

This article investigates the existence of a threshold level of inflation and how any such level affects the growth of Indian economy. The article also seeks to examine the dynamic short-run and long-run relationship between inflation and economic growth in India. By employing spline regression method to estimate the threshold level of inflation and the long-run and short-run relationships, the results show a statistically significant structural break in the relationship between inflation and economic growth at 4 per cent. The study suggests that if inflation exceeds the threshold point, that is, 4 per cent, it will negatively affect economic growth. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model bound testing cointegration suggests that there are two cointegration vectors when gross domestic product and rate of interest are considered as the dependent variables. This result confirms the existence of the long-run equilibrium relationship between economic growth, inflation, exchange rate and rate of interest. From the long-run analysis, the study found that inflation is positively related to economic growth, whereas the other variables are not significant. JEL Classification: E4, E6.