Economic evidence through time
Methodology & data notes
How this dashboard works
Data providers. Higher-frequency and US macroeconomic observations come primarily from FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). World Bank indicators fill comparable annual-history gaps. IMF DataMapper supplies selected World Economic Outlook history and forecasts. Every result is labelled with its source.
Update policy. Economic information is latest available, not real-time. Market-linked series may update daily, inflation and unemployment usually monthly, GDP quarterly or annually, and World Bank and IMF indicators annually. “Updated” is when the dashboard checked the service; “Observation” is the actual reporting period.
Growth assessment. Quick Analysis considers the latest real-GDP growth observation and its change from the previous period. Industrial production is used as an additional activity signal where a comparable series exists.
Inflation assessment. The dashboard compares the latest year-on-year inflation rate with its previous observation. CPI index series are transformed consistently into year-on-year percentage changes.
Labour assessment. Unemployment is shown with its direction of change. Some countries do not have a sufficiently comparable high-frequency series; the dashboard then uses annual World Bank data or reports that the indicator is unavailable.
Monetary-policy stance. Policy rates are shown as official rates or clearly labelled proxies. Any restrictive, neutral or accommodative description is an educational signal, not a central-bank judgement.
Country comparison. The same indicator is requested for both selected countries. Units and transformations are aligned wherever possible; different frequencies and observation dates remain visible and are not silently treated as identical.
Fallback hierarchy. The service uses FRED first, World Bank second and IMF where appropriate. If no comparable series exists, it reports “Not available” rather than substituting unrelated data.
Forecasts and revisions. IMF forecasts are clearly identified and kept distinct from historical observations. GDP, inflation and other macroeconomic releases may be revised after their initial publication.
Refresh and resilience. The page retains the last successful display if a refresh fails. Long histories are sampled only for chart efficiency; latest values and official observation dates are preserved.
Time zone. Dashboard refresh times are shown in IST (Asia/Kolkata). Economic observation dates retain their official reporting periods.