Fred Stlouisfed Org

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) Access Skill

Access time series data and metadata from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis's FRED database.

Overview

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) is one of the most comprehensive economic databases available, providing access to over 800,000 economic time series from various sources including:

• Federal Reserve Board
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
• Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
• U.S. Census Bureau
• Treasury Department
• And many more

Available Functions

get_series_data

Retrieve time series observations for a specific FRED series.

Parameters:

• series_id (required): FRED series identifier (e.g., 'GFDEBTN', 'GDP', 'UNRATE')
• start_date (optional): Start date filter (YYYY-MM-DD format)
• end_date (optional): End date filter (YYYY-MM-DD format)
• transformation (optional): Data transformation:
  • lin: Levels (default)
  • chg: Change
  • ch1: Change from Year Ago
  • pch: Percent Change
  • pc1: Percent Change from Year Ago
  • pca: Compounded Annual Rate of Change
  • log: Natural Log

Example:

result = await execute({
    'function': 'get_series_data',
    'series_id': 'GFDEBTN',
    'start_date': '2020-01-01',
    'end_date': '2023-12-31'
})
# Returns: { success: true, series_id: 'GFDEBTN', observations: [...], observation_count: 16, ... }

get_series_metadata

Retrieve comprehensive metadata for a FRED series.

Parameters:

• series_id (required): FRED series identifier

Returns:

• Series title and description
• Frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual)
• Units (dollars, percent, index, etc.)
• Seasonal adjustment status
• Date range of available data
• Last updated timestamp
• Tags and keywords
• Category information
• Available transformations
• Source attribution

Example:

result = await execute({
    'function': 'get_series_metadata',
    'series_id': 'GDP'
})
# Returns: { title: 'Gross Domestic Product', frequency: 'Quarterly', units: 'Billions of Dollars', ... }

get_series_full

Retrieve both metadata and data in a single call.

Parameters:

• series_id (required): FRED series identifier
• start_date, end_date (optional): Date filters
• transformation (optional): Data transformation
• include_observations (optional): Include full observations array (default: true). If false, returns summary statistics instead.

Example:

result = await execute({
    'function': 'get_series_full',
    'series_id': 'UNRATE',
    'start_date': '2023-01-01',
    'include_observations': false
})
# Returns metadata plus data summary (min/max/latest values)

search_series

Search for FRED series by keyword.

Parameters:

• query (required): Search query string
• limit (optional): Maximum results (default: 20, max: 100)
• offset (optional): Pagination offset (default: 0)

Example:

result = await execute({
    'function': 'search_series',
    'query': 'unemployment rate',
    'limit': 10
})
# Returns: { results: [{ series_id: 'UNRATE', title: 'Unemployment Rate', ... }] }

Popular Series IDs

Data Format

Observations

Each observation contains:

• date: Date string in YYYY-MM-DD format
• value: Numeric value (or null if missing)

Missing values in FRED are represented as . and are converted to null.

Date Handling

• Dates are returned in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD)
• Most monthly/quarterly series use period-end dates
• Date filtering is applied after fetching data

Transformation Options

FRED supports various data transformations that can be applied on the server:

Use Cases

1. Economic Analysis: Track GDP, unemployment, inflation trends
2. Financial Analysis: Monitor interest rates, yield curves
3. Policy Research: Analyze federal debt, government spending
4. Forecasting: Access historical data for predictive models
5. Dashboards: Build real-time economic indicators

Error Handling

The skill returns structured error responses:

{
    'success': false,
    'error': 'Failed to fetch data (status 404)',
    'series_id': 'INVALID_ID'
}

Common errors:

• Series not found (invalid series_id)
• Request timeout
• Network errors

Attribution

When using FRED data, please cite:

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRED Economic Data. https://fred.stlouisfed.org

Rate Limits

The skill implements reasonable rate limiting:

• 10 requests per second
• 500 requests per minute

Notes

• Series IDs are case-insensitive but typically uppercase
• Some series may have significant historical revisions
• Real-time data availability varies by series
• Vintage data (historical versions) is available for some series
• Data quality and timeliness varies by source