02481cas a2200337 a 4500 AALejournalIMF021695 230101c9999 xx r poo 0 0eng d 18.00 USD 9781513582498 1018-5941 BD-DhAAL BD-DhAAL Buell, Brandon. Impact of COVID-19 : Nowcasting and Big Data to Track Economic Activity in Sub-Saharan Africa / Brandon Buell, Reda Cherif, Carissa Chen, Karl Walentin. Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2021. 1 online resource (61 pages) IMF Working Papers <strong>Off-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required <strong>On-Campus Access:</strong> No User ID or Password Required Electronic access restricted to authorized BRAC University faculty, staff and students The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the critical need for detailed, timely information on its evolving economic impacts, particularly for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where data availability and lack of generalizable nowcasting methodologies limit efforts for coordinated policy responses. This paper presents a suite of high frequency and granular country-level indicator tools that can be used to nowcast GDP and track changes in economic activity for countries in SSA. We make two main contributions: (1) demonstration of the predictive power of alternative data variables such as Google search trends and mobile payments, and (2) implementation of two types of modelling methodologies, machine learning and parametric factor models, that have flexibility to incorporate mixed-frequency data variables. We present nowcast results for 2019Q4 and 2020Q1 GDP for Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Ghana, and argue that our factor model methodology can be generalized to nowcast and forecast GDP for other SSA countries with limited data availability and shorter timeframes. Mode of access: Internet Classification Methods imf Cluster Analysis imf Foreign Exchange imf Informal Economy imf Underground Econom imf Chen, Carissa. Cherif, Reda. Walentin, Karl. IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2021/124 Full text available on IMF http://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2021/124/001.2021.issue-124-en.xml IMF e-Library