FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
Example: To pull the USDA and BLS food-price series into the Cost Index build automatically, the pipeline reads them through FRED's single open API — one front door — instead of scraping each agency's own download page, while still crediting the agency that actually measured each number.
the public front door to U.S. economic data
A free public database run by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It gathers hundreds of thousands of economic series from many original producers — the BLS, the Census Bureau, the USDA, and others — into one searchable interface and a single open API. FRED distributes the data; it does not measure prices itself.
Why it matters
It’s the convenient front door to numbers other agencies produce — one place to find a series and one open API to pull it, instead of chasing each agency’s own download page. The Cost Index uses FRED to pull certain public series programmatically, which keeps the build reproducible. Just keep the original measurer in mind: a price series on FRED is the BLS’s or the USDA’s work, re-served — FRED is the shelf, not the producer.
Frequently asked
What is FRED?
FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) is a free public database run by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It gathers hundreds of thousands of economic time series from many original producers — the BLS, the Census Bureau, the USDA, and others — into one searchable interface and a single open API. FRED distributes the data; it does not measure prices itself.
Does FRED produce its own price data?
No. FRED is a distributor, not a producer. The price and cost series you find there are measured by other agencies — a food price index is the BLS's work, a wholesale figure may trace to the USDA — and FRED simply re-serves them behind one clean interface. When you cite a number from FRED, the original measuring agency is who actually produced it.
How does the Cost Index use FRED?
The Cost Index uses FRED to pull certain public series programmatically — one open API instead of chasing each agency's own download page — which keeps the build reproducible. FRED is used as a convenient delivery channel for public data; the authoritative wholesale level still comes from USDA reports, with BLS series as a directional check.
- BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) — the U.S. price, wage & jobs statistics agency
- USDA Market News — USDA’s public market-price reports
- USDA Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR) — mandatory packer price reporting to USDA
- USDA Dairy Product Sales Report (NDPSR) — the weekly U.S. dairy price benchmark
- EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) — the U.S. federal energy-statistics agency
- NOAA Fisheries — the U.S. ocean-fisheries & landings agency
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