Twice a year The Wall Street Journal asks a panel of economists to forecast interest rates, inflation rates, growth in Gross Domestic Product, and other economic variables. The table (p. 372) reports the inflation forecasts (in percent) made in June 1999 and in January 2000 by nine randomly selected members of the panel.

a. On average, were the economists more optimistic about the prospects for low inflation in late 1999 than they were for Spring 2000? Specify the hypotheses to bc tested.

b. Conduct the hypothesis test using a = .05 and answer the question posed in part a.