Email of the day - on moving averages for economic data
Moving averages for economic series - i.e. only monthly data exist. How do I get a 12 month or longer moving average? If I put in 12 I get a very jerky looking chart, not as smooth as I would expect...
Generally speaking, economic data is only released once a quarter so a moving average for a year would be only 4 data points which is likely to create a jerky looking chart if you look at two short a time range, or if there is a big difference in the range of the data. For example this chart of UK GDP is smoothed with a 20 quarter MA over 50 years and creates a smooth line.
