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From the Abstract: This paper proposes a leading indicator, the \'Google Mobility Index,\' for nowcasting monthly industrial production growth rates in selected economies in Latin America and the Caribbean The index is constructed using the Google COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] Community Mobility Report database via a Kalman filter The Google database is publicly available starting from February 15, 2020 The paper uses a backcasting methodology to increase the historical number of observations and then augments a lag of one week in the mobility data with other high-frequency data (air quality) over January 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020 Finally, mixed data sampling regression is implemented for nowcasting industrial production growth rates The Google Mobility Index is a good predictor of industrial production The results suggest a significant decline in output of between 5 and 7 percent for March and April, respectively, while indicating a trough in output in mid-April COVID-19 (Disease);Economics
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