Federal Reserve Economic Data

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Workday and weekday data in FRED

A nod to Bloomsday

Literary critics praise James Joyce’s 1922 novel Ulysses as a modernist masterpiece, where the stream of consciousness writing technique carries forward the narrative over a single day. This past Sunday, June 16, was its annual celebration, known as “Bloomsday.”

Bloomsday is once per year, but every day is data day for FRED. So, in this post, we celebrate FRED’s ongoing work to make data accessible by highlighting its continuous process of updating key economic data series.

The FRED graph above shows four overnight interest rates related to the monetary policy process:

  • Two of them, reported by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, are the federal funds effective rate (in blue) and the interest rate on reserve balances (in red). Both are labeled “Daily, 7-Day” and are updated in FRED every single day of the week. Notice these are displayed as a continuous stream of data points.
  • The other two are the award rate for overnight reverse repurchase agreements (in green), reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the primary credit rate for the Discount Window (in purple), reported by the Board of Governors. Both are labeled “Daily” and are updated in FRED every working day. They are displayed as regularly spaced strings of data points with gaps during weekends and holidays.

You can learn more about each of the individual data series shown in the graph here.

How this graph was created: Search FRED for and select “Federal Funds Effective Rate.” From the “Edit Graph” panel, use the “Add Line” tab to search for and select “Interest Rate on Reserve Balances.” Repeat the last step to add the other two series: “Overnight Reverse Repurchase Agreements Award Rate: Treasury Securities Sold by the Federal Reserve in the Temporary Open Market Operations” and “Discount Window Primary Credit Rate.”

Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.



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