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Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) is a database maintained by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis that provides access to more than 816,000 economic time series from hundreds of public and private sources.[1] The database includes data on banking, business and fiscal conditions, consumer price indexes, employment and population, exchange rates, gross domestic product, interest rates, monetary aggregates, producer price indexes, reserves and monetary base, U.S. trade and international transactions, and financial markets. FRED aggregates data from U.S. government agencies, state institutions, universities, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, and private companies, including sources such as the United States Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Zillow, and the National Association of Realtors.[2][3]
FRED was created by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis to improve public access to economic and financial data. Over time, the platform expanded from a relatively small collection of U.S. macroeconomic indicators into a large-scale aggregation service containing domestic and international economic data from hundreds of providers.
The platform is widely used by economists, researchers, journalists, students, policymakers, and participants in financial markets for economic analysis and forecasting.[4]
FRED organizes economic information primarily as time series ("series") consisting of dated observations. Series are associated with statistical releases and data sources, while categories and tags provide systems for browsing and metadata classification.
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Source | An institution or organization that provides data published through FRED |
| Release | A statistical publication or dataset grouping associated with one or more sources |
| Series | An individual economic time series consisting of dated observations |
| Observation | A dated value within a series |
| Category | A hierarchical classification used to organize and browse series |
| Tag | A metadata label used for search and cross-classification |
| Vintage (ALFRED) | A historical snapshot of a series as available at a specific point in time |
Categories form a hierarchical browsing structure, while tags provide non-hierarchical metadata relationships across series. Individual series may appear in multiple categories and may be associated with numerous tags.
ALFRED (Archival Federal Reserve Economic Data) provides access to vintage versions of economic data that were available at specific points in time. The service allows researchers to examine historical revisions to economic statistics and reproduce analyses using data available at earlier dates.[5]
GeoFRED is a geographic mapping tool that displays selected FRED data series using color-coded visualizations at the state, metropolitan statistical area, and county levels.[6]
FRASER (Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research) is a digital archive created by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis to preserve and provide access to historical economic publications and documents related to the history of the United States financial system and the Federal Reserve System.[7]
The archive includes:
FRASER was developed in collaboration with libraries, government agencies, and academic institutions.
CASSIDI is a data service that provides information about banking market structures, banking markets, and depository institutions within the United States.[8]
The St. Louis Fed Research division also hosts IDEAS, a bibliographic database associated with Research Papers in Economics (RePEc), which indexes economic research papers, articles, and working papers from academic and research institutions worldwide.[9]
FRED data are widely used in academic research, financial markets, journalism, and public policy analysis. The platform is commonly used for economic forecasting, macroeconomic analysis, and reproducible research.
The availability of machine-readable data and public APIs has contributed to the widespread adoption of FRED within quantitative finance, economics, and data science communities.
In a 2012 Business Insider article, economist Paul Krugman described FRED as an essential tool for real-time economic analysis.[10]
| SERIES | CATEGORY | SUB-CATEGORY | INDICATOR | PERIOD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TREAST | Finance | Monetary Data | US Treasuries Held by the Fed | W |
| WSHOMCB | Finance | Monetary Data | Mortgage Backed Sec Held by the Fed | W |
| WALCL | Banking | Monetary Factors | All Fed Reserve Banks - Total Assets | W |
| TLAAC | Banking | Monetary Factors | All Commercial Banks - Total Assets | W |
| TOTBKCR | Banking | Commercial Credit | Bank Credit of All Commercial Banks | W |
| TOTALSEC | Banking | Commercial Credit | Securitized Total Consumer Loans | M |
| TOTALSL | Banking | Commercial Credit | Total Consumer Credit Outstanding | M |
| INVEST | Banking | Investment | Total Investments All Commercial Banks | M |
| USGSEC | Banking | Investment | US Treasury and Agency Securities
at All Commercial Banks |
M |
| CONSUMER | Banking | Loans | Total Consumer Loans | M |
| BUSLOANS | Banking | Loans | Total Commercial/Industrial Loans | M |
| DALLCACBEP | Banking | Delinquencies | Delinquencies On All Loans And Leases | M |
| T10Y2Y | Banking | Interest Rates | US 10-YR / 2-YR Spread | W |
| TB3MS | Banking | Interest Rates | 3-Month T-Bill: Secondary Market Rate | W |
| DGS10 | Banking | Interest Rates | 10-Yr Treasury Const. Maturity Rate | W |
| GFDEBTN | Business/Fiscal | Federal Government | Federal Government Debt (Public) | Y |
| FYOINT | Business/Fiscal | Federal Government | Interest on National Debt | Y |
| FYONET | Business/Fiscal | Federal Government | Federal Spending | Y |
| FYFR | Business/Fiscal | Federal Government | Federal Receipts | Y |
| FYFSD | Business/Fiscal | Federal Government | Budget Deficit/Surplus | Y |
| CDSP | Business/Fiscal | Household Sector | Consumer Debt/Income Ratio | Q |
| PERMIT | Business/Fiscal | Household Sector | New Home Permits | M |
| HSN1F | Business/Fiscal | Household Sector | New Home Sales | M |
| CMDEBT | Business/Fiscal | Household Sector | Outstanding Mortgage Debt | Q |
| DGORDER | Business/Fiscal | Ind. Production | Manufacturers' New Orders | M |
| TCU | Business/Fiscal | Ind. Production | Capacity Utilization: Total Industry | M |
| TTLCONS | Business/Fiscal | Construction | Total Construction Spending | M |
| BUSINV | Business/Fiscal | Other | Total Business Inventories | M |
| ALTSALES | Business/Fiscal | Other | Light Weight Vehicle Sales | M |
| UMCSENT | Business/Fiscal | Other | Univ of Michigan: Consumer Sentiment | M |
| STLFSI | Business/Fiscal | Other | St. Louis Financial Stress Index | W |
| OILPRICE | Business/Fiscal | Other | Spot Oil Price - West Texas Intermediate | M |
| CPIAUCSL | Consumer Prices | CPI | Consumer Price Index: Seasonally Adj. | M |
| UNRATE | Empl & Population | Household Survey | Civilian Total Unemployment Rate | M |
| UEMP27OV | Empl & Population | Household Survey | Long Term Unemployment: >27 WKS | M |
| UEMPMED | Empl & Population | Household Survey | Length of Unemployment | M |
| CE16OV | Empl & Population | Household Survey | Total US Workforce | M |
| EMRATIO | Empl & Population | Household Survey | US Employment/Population Ratio | M |
| POP | Empl & Population | Population | US Population | M |
| AHEMAN | Empl & Population | Est. Survey | Avg Hourly Earnings: Manufacturing | M |
| AWHMAN | Empl & Population | Est. Survey | Avg Weekly Hours: Manufacturing | M |
| AWOTMAN | Empl & Population | Est. Survey | Avg Weekly OT Hours: Manufacturing | M |
| DEXUSUK | Exchange Rates | Daily Rates | USD/GBP Currency Exchange Rate | D |
| DEXUSEU | Exchange Rates | Daily Rates | USD/EUR Currency Exchange Rate | D |
| DEXJPUS | Exchange Rates | Daily Rates | JPN/USD Currency Exchange Rate | D |
| DEXMXUS | Exchange Rates | Daily Rates | MXP/USD Currency Exchange Rate | D |
| DEXCAUS | Exchange Rates | Daily Rates | CAD/USD Currency Exchange Rate | D |
| DEXCHUS | Exchange Rates | Daily Rates | CNY/USD Currency Exchange Rate | D |
| COMPOUT | Financial Data | Monetary | Commercial Paper Outstanding | W |
| VIXCLS | Financial Data | Volatility Inexes | CBOE Volatility Index | D |
| GDP | GDP & Components | GDP/GNP | US Gross Domestic Product | Q |
| GNP | GDP & Components | GDP/GNP | US Gross National Product | Q |
| GDI | GDP & Components | GDP/GNP | US Gross Domestic Income | Q |
| NETFI | GDP & Components | Imports & Exports | US Current Account Balance | Q |
| EXPGS | GDP & Components | Imports & Exports | US Exports Goods & Services | Q |
| IMPGS | GDP & Components | Imports & Exports | US Imports Goods & Services | Q |
| DGI | GDP & Components | Govt Accounting | Fed Govt: Defense Budget | Q |
| FGRECPT | GDP & Components | Govt Accounting | Fed Govt: Tax Receipts | Q |
| TGDEF | GDP & Components | Govt Accounting | Fed Govt: Budget Deficit | Q |
| CP | GDP & Components | Industry | Corporate Profits After Tax | Q |
| DIVIDEND | GDP & Components | Industry | Corporate Dividends | Q |
| PI | GDP & Components | Personal | Personal Income | M |
| PSAVE | GDP & Components | Savings & Inv. | Personal Savings | Q |
| PSAVERT | GDP & Components | Savings & Inv. | Personal Savings Rate | M |
| MORTGAGE30US | Interest Rates | 30yr Mortgage | 30-yr Conventional Mortgage Rate | W |
| DPCREDIT | Interest Rates | FRB Rates | Discount Rate | D |
| FEDFUNDS | Interest Rates | FRB Rates | Effective Federal Funds Rate | M |
| M1 | Monetary Aggregates | M1 | M1 Money Supply | M |
| M2 | Monetary Aggregates | M2 | M2 Money Supply | M |
| M1V | Monetary Aggregates | M1 | Velocity of M1 Money Stock | M |
| M2V | Monetary Aggregates | M2 | Velocity of M2 Money Stock | M |
| PPIACO | Producer Prices | PPI | Producer Price Index: All Commodities | M |
| IMPCH | Trade | Imports | Imports from China | M |
| IMPJP | Trade | Imports | Imports from Japan | M |
| IMPMX | Trade | Imports | Imports from Mexico | M |
| IMPCA | Trade | Imports | Imports from Canada | M |
| IMPGE | Trade | Imports | Imports from Germany | M |
| IMPUK | Trade | Imports | Imports from UK | M |
| EXPCH | Trade | Exports | Exports to China | M |
| EXPJP | Trade | Exports | Exports to Japan | M |
| EXPMX | Trade | Exports | Exports to Mexico | M |
| EXPCA | Trade | Exports | Exports to Canada | M |
| EXPGE | Trade | Exports | Exports to Germany | M |
| EXPUK | Trade | Exports | Exports to UK | M |
| BOPGEXP | Trade | Exports | Exports: Goods | M |
| BOPGIMP | Trade | Imports | Imports: Goods | M |
| BOPGTB | Trade | Balance | Balance: Goods | M |
| BOPGSXP | Trade | Exports | Exports: Services | M |
| BOPSIMP | Trade | Imports | Imports: Services | M |
| BOPSTB | Trade | Balance | Balance: Services | M |
| BOPGSTB | Trade | Balance | Balance: Goods & Services | M |