Macroeconomic and monetary policy surprises and the term structure of interest rates

The no-arbitrage affine Gaussian term structure model is used to analyse the impact of macroeconomic surprises on the nominal and the real term structure in the euro area and in the United States. We find that nominal rates are affected by surprises in economic growth, the labour market and the economic outlook in the United States, and above all by surprises in inflation in the euro area. As far as real rates are concerned, we find that they are not affected by macroeconomic surprises in the United States, but they are by surprises in inflation and monetary policy in the euro area. Inflation expectations in both areas are not systematically influenced by monetary policy surprises. In the United States forward inflation risk premia became sizeable around the start of the financial crisis at the end of the last decade and increased considerably just before the adoption of the first unconventional monetary policy measures in March 2009. By contrast, in the euro area forward inflation risk premia remained unchanged even after the adoption of the unconventional monetary policy measures in October 2008 and May 2010. In both areas long-term inflation expectations have been well anchored over the past years.