We consider a sequence of observations which is generated by a so-called hidden Markov model. An exponential smoothing procedure applied to such an observation sequence generates an inhomogeneous Markov process as a sequence of smoothed values. If the state sequence of the underlying hidden Markov model is moreover ergodic, then for two classes of smoothing functions the strong ergodicity of the sequence of smoothed values is proved. As a consequence a central limit theorem and a law of large numbers hold true for the smoothed values. The proof uses general results for so-called convergent inhomogeneous Markov processes. The procedure proposed by the author can be applied to some time series discussed in the literature.
