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Economic and Financial Data Sources

It's all right here, but where to find it? To start with, what is the relevant government agency for the information you seek? Two good places to look first are FirstGov.com, the U.S. government's official web portal which hosts an A-Z index of departments and agencies, and Fedstats, billed as the gateway to statistics from over 100 federal agencies.

Here are some primary sources for domestic economic and financial data. The Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Economics and Statistics Administration provides timely access to daily releases of key economic indicators at EconomicIndicators.gov, monthly compilations of economic indicators from April 1955 on are available at GPOAccess, the White House offers Briefing Room  and the site for the Council of Economic Advisers, the Joint Economic Committee is a prime source of information for the Congress, and the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics provides detailed information on the all important Consumer Price Indexes.

The 12 separate Federal Reserve member banks can be easily and quickly accessed from The Federal Reserve System Online. Although each of the banks provides data peculiar to its own geographical region as well as national data, many of the regional banks offer distinctive research and data.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis is a particularly rich source of information, hosting Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), a database of over 3000 U.S. economic time series, Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (FRASER), offering historical economic data in .PDF format, and Archival Federal Reserve Economic Data (ALFRED), providing data for 150 series in 4 FRED categories going back to December, 1996, as well as a host of other research available on its Economic Research page.

The famous Beige Book is prepared for each meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee and is made available by the Minneapolis Fed. The book is a compilation of economic conditions in all twelve of the Federal Reserve districts.

In 1990 the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank took over the well known Livingston Survey, the oldest continuous survey of economist's expectations. It summarizes the forecasts of economists from industry, government, banking and academia, and is published twice a year, in June and December.

A number of reliable non-government sites provide well organized access to economic and financial data. The majority of site offer additional services on a subscription basis, but most offer substantial free information. The National Bureau of Economic Research and The Conference Board are two of the nation's oldest and most respected research organizations. EconData.net provides over 1,000 links to data sources grouped according to subject, and Economagic.com provides an extensive topical grouping as well. FreeLunch.com, as the name implies, offers free access to over 100,000 economic, financial and demographic data series. Dr. Ed Yardeni's Economics Network is offered by a noted business economist with some free information, particularly charts.

"Fed Watching" is the financial world's other favorite indoor sport. The people best qualified to peer over the Fed's shoulder is the famous Shadow Open Market Committee, a group of academics and practitioners who meet semi-annually to critique the policies set by the Federal Reserve.