Inflation Rate Modelling Through a Hybrid Model of Seasonal Autoregressive Moving Average and Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network

This study examines the performance of seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA), multilayer perceptron neural networks (MLPNN), and hybrid SARIMA-MLPNN model(s) in modelling and forecasting inflation rate using the monthly consumer price index (CPI) data from 2010 to 2019 obtained from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). The forecast errors in inflation rate forecasting are analyzed and compared. The study employed root mean squared error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) as performance measures. The results indicate that significant improvements in forecasting accuracy are obtained with the hybrid model (SARIMA-MLPNN) compared to the SARIMA and MLPNN. The MLPNN model outperformed the SARIMA model. However, the hybrid SARIMA-MLPNN model outperformed both the SARIMA and MLPNN in terms of forecasting accuracy/accuracy performance.