Economic debates around mitigating climate change and weather-related events have long centred on fiscal policy tools than those of monetary policy. However, recent discussions point out that monetary policy formulation could also be affected and hence the need to deploy monetary policy tools as well. Our article seeks to investigate the impacts of climate change, particularly extreme weather events, on headline inflation and food price inflation and their apparent implications for monetary policy in Africa over the period 1990–2017. Using a two-step dynamic system Generalized Method of Moments estimation strategy with robust standard errors, we find that weather-related events may need to be large and consequential to cause a significant price hike in Africa. We also find the incidence of droughts and floods to have a bearing on food price inflation. Furthermore, our empirical evidence using mediation analysis, reveals agricultural production to be the critical mechanism whereby extreme weather events affect headline inflation. As central banks are charged with the mandate of ensuring a stable monetary environment, we suggest that monetary policy authorities consider the short and long run impacts of supply shocks caused by extreme weather events on general price levels in their policy formulation.

长期以来，围绕缓解气候变化和与天气相关的事件的经济辩论都集中在财政政策工具上，而不是货币政策工具上。然而，最近的讨论指出，货币政策的制定也可能受到影响，因此也需要部署货币政策工具。我们的文章旨在调查气候变化，尤其是极端天气事件，对 1990 年至 2017 年期间总体通胀和食品价格通胀的影响及其对非洲货币政策的明显影响。使用具有稳健标准误差的两步动态系统广义矩估计策略，我们发现与天气相关的事件可能需要很大且必然导致非洲价格大幅上涨。我们还发现干旱和洪水的发生与食品价格上涨有关。此外，我们使用中介分析的经验证据表明，农业生产是极端天气事件影响总体通胀的关键机制。由于中央银行的职责是确保稳定的货币环境，我们建议货币政策当局在制定政策时考虑极端天气事件造成的供应冲击对总体价格水平的短期和长期影响。