The mean annual inflation rate in the United States over the past 98 years is 3.37% and has a standard deviation of approximately 5%. In 2018, the inflation rate was below 1.9%. If the annual inflation rate is normally distributed, what is the probability that inflation rate will be below 1.9% in 2019?

Respuesta :

Answer:

38.59% probability that inflation rate will be below 1.9% in 2019

Step-by-step explanation:

Problems of normally distributed samples are solved using the z-score formula.

In a set with mean [tex]\mu[/tex] and standard deviation [tex]\sigma[/tex], the zscore of a measure X is given by:

[tex]Z = \frac{X - \mu}{\sigma}[/tex]

The Z-score measures how many standard deviations the measure is from the mean. After finding the Z-score, we look at the z-score table and find the p-value associated with this z-score. This p-value is the probability that the value of the measure is smaller than X, that is, the percentile of X. Subtracting 1 by the pvalue, we get the probability that the value of the measure is greater than X.

In this problem, we have that:

[tex]\mu = 3.37, \sigma = 5[/tex]

If the annual inflation rate is normally distributed, what is the probability that inflation rate will be below 1.9% in 2019?

This is the pvalue of Z when X = 1.9. So

[tex]Z = \frac{X - \mu}{\sigma}[/tex]

[tex]Z = \frac{1.9 - 3.37}{5}[/tex]

[tex]Z = -0.29[/tex]

[tex]Z = -0.29[/tex] has a pvalue of 0.3859

38.59% probability that inflation rate will be below 1.9% in 2019