Question: The U.S. Census Bureau publishes data on factory orders for all manufacturing, durable goods, and nondurable goods industries. Shown here are factory orders in the United States from 1987 through 1999 ($billion).

a) Use these data to develop forecasts for the years 1992 through 1999 using a 5-year moving average.

b.) Use these data to develop forecasts for the years 1992 through 1999 using a 5-year weighted moving average. Weight the most recent year by 6, the previous year by 4, the year before that by 2, and the other years by 1.

c.) Compute the errors of the forecasts in parts (a) and (b) and observe the differences in the errors of the forecasts.

Year Factory Orders (billions)

1987 2,512.7

1988 2,739.2

1989 2,874.9

1990 2,934.1

1991 2,865.7

1992 2,978.5

1993 3,092.4

1994 3,356.8

1995 3,607.6

1996 3,749.3

1997 3,952.0

1998 3,949.0

1999 4,137.0