Machine learning forecasting of CR and PRC balance of trade

Abstract

International trade is an important factor of economic growth. While foreign trade has existed throughout the history, its political, economic and social importance has grown significantly in the last centuries. The objective of the contribution is to use machine learning forecasting for predicting the balance of trade of the Czech Republic (CR) and the People´s Republic of China (PRC) through analysing and machine learning forecasting of the CR import from the PRC and the CR export to the PRC. The data set includes monthly trade balance intervals from January 2000 to June 2019. The contribution investigates and subsequently smooths two time series: the CR import from the PRC; the CR export to the PRC. The balance of trade of both countries in the entire monitored period is negative from the perspective of the CR. A total of 10,000 neural networks are generated. 5 neural structures with the best characteristics are retained. Neural networks are able to capture both the trend of the entire time series and its seasonal fluctuations, but it is necessary to work with time series lag. The CR import from the PRC is growing and it is expected to grow in the future. The CR export to the PRC is growing and it is expected to grow in the future, but its increase in absolute values will be slower than the increase of the CR import from the PRC.