drug-discovery-prompts/upstream/K-Dense-AI-scientific-agent-skills/skills/database-lookup/references/ecb.md

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ECB Statistical Data Warehouse (SDW) REST API Reference		import	https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills/blob/9c9bd2e9/skills/database-lookup/references/ecb.md	9c9bd2e9	2026-06-26	prompt	accepted	upstream	false

ECB Statistical Data Warehouse (SDW) REST API Reference

Overview

The ECB SDW API provides access to European Central Bank statistical data: exchange rates, monetary aggregates, interest rates, balance of payments, banking statistics, and more. It follows the SDMX (Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange) RESTful web services standard.

Base URL

https://data-api.ecb.europa.eu/service

Note: The legacy URL https://sdw-wsrest.ecb.europa.eu/service still works but the above is the current endpoint.

Authentication

No API key required. The API is fully open and public.

Rate Limits

• No formal rate limits published.
• ECB asks users to be respectful: avoid excessive parallel requests.
• For bulk downloads, use compressed responses (Accept-Encoding: gzip).

Common Headers

Header	Value	Description
Accept	application/vnd.sdmx.data+json;version=2.0.0	JSON format (recommended)
Accept	application/vnd.sdmx.data+csv	CSV format
Accept	application/vnd.sdmx.data+xml	SDMX-ML XML (default)
Accept-Encoding	gzip	Compressed response

---

Key Endpoints

1. Get Data (Time Series)

GET /data/{flowRef}/{key}?{parameters}

Component	Description
flowRef	Dataflow ID (e.g., EXR for exchange rates, BSI for balance sheet items)
key	Dot-separated dimension values. Use + for OR, . to skip a dimension (wildcard).

Query Parameters:

Parameter	Required	Description
startPeriod	No	Start date: YYYY, YYYY-MM, or YYYY-MM-DD
endPeriod	No	End date: same formats
updatedAfter	No	ISO 8601 timestamp; returns only data updated after this time
detail	No	full (default), dataonly, serieskeysonly, nodata
firstNObservations	No	Return only first N observations per series
lastNObservations	No	Return only last N observations per series
dimensionAtObservation	No	Typically TIME_PERIOD (default)

Exchange Rate Key Structure (EXR dataflow): {frequency}.{currency}.{currency_denom}.{exr_type}.{exr_suffix}

Position	Dimension	Common Values
1	Frequency	D (daily), M (monthly), A (annual)
2	Currency	USD, GBP, JPY, CHF, CNY, etc.
3	Currency denominator	EUR (usually)
4	Exchange rate type	SP00 (spot), EN00 (average)
5	Exchange rate suffix	A (average), E (end of period)

Example -- Daily USD/EUR spot rate, 2024:

GET https://data-api.ecb.europa.eu/service/data/EXR/D.USD.EUR.SP00.A?startPeriod=2024-01-01&endPeriod=2024-12-31
Accept: application/vnd.sdmx.data+json;version=2.0.0

Example -- Monthly GBP and JPY vs EUR, last 12 observations:

GET https://data-api.ecb.europa.eu/service/data/EXR/M.GBP+JPY.EUR.SP00.A?lastNObservations=12
Accept: application/vnd.sdmx.data+json;version=2.0.0

Example -- All daily exchange rates for a specific date (wildcard):

GET https://data-api.ecb.europa.eu/service/data/EXR/D..EUR.SP00.A?startPeriod=2024-06-01&endPeriod=2024-06-01
Accept: application/vnd.sdmx.data+json;version=2.0.0

JSON Response Structure (SDMX-JSON v2.0):

{
  "meta": { "schema": "...", "id": "...", "prepared": "2024-11-01T12:00:00Z" },
  "data": {
    "dataSets": [
      {
        "action": "Information",
        "series": {
          "0": {
            "attributes": [0, 0, ...],
            "observations": {
              "0": [1.0856],
              "1": [1.0791],
              "2": [1.0834]
            }
          }
        }
      }
    ],
    "structures": [
      {
        "dimensions": {
          "series": [...],
          "observation": [
            {
              "id": "TIME_PERIOD",
              "values": [
                {"id": "2024-01-02", "name": "2024-01-02"},
                {"id": "2024-01-03", "name": "2024-01-03"}
              ]
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Note: Observation values are indexed arrays. Match observation index to TIME_PERIOD values in structures.dimensions.observation.

CSV Response (simpler to parse):

Accept: application/vnd.sdmx.data+csv

Returns standard CSV with columns: DATAFLOW, FREQ, CURRENCY, CURRENCY_DENOM, EXR_TYPE, EXR_SUFFIX, TIME_PERIOD, OBS_VALUE, etc.

---

2. Get Dataflow Definitions (Available Datasets)

GET /dataflow/{agencyID}/{resourceID}/{version}

Example -- List all ECB dataflows:

GET https://data-api.ecb.europa.eu/service/dataflow/ECB
Accept: application/vnd.sdmx.structure+json;version=2.0.0

Example -- Get EXR dataflow definition:

GET https://data-api.ecb.europa.eu/service/dataflow/ECB/EXR
Accept: application/vnd.sdmx.structure+json;version=2.0.0

---

3. Get Data Structure Definition (Dimensions & Codes)

GET /datastructure/{agencyID}/{resourceID}/{version}?references=children

Example:

GET https://data-api.ecb.europa.eu/service/datastructure/ECB/ECB_EXR1?references=children
Accept: application/vnd.sdmx.structure+json;version=2.0.0

This returns all dimensions, their code lists, and allowed values -- essential for constructing valid keys.

---

Common Dataflow IDs

Dataflow	Description
EXR	Exchange rates
BSI	Balance sheet items (monetary financial institutions)
MIR	MFI interest rates
ILM	Internal liquidity management
SEC	Securities issues statistics
BOP	Balance of payments
STP	Structural financial indicators
CBD	Consolidated banking data
ICP	Index of consumer prices (HICP)
FM	Financial market data
YC	Yield curve data

Notes

• The SDMX-JSON format is verbose. For simpler parsing, use Accept: application/vnd.sdmx.data+csv.
• When a dimension is unknown, leave it empty (e.g., D..EUR.SP00.A) to get all values for that dimension.
• Use + to request multiple values for one dimension (e.g., USD+GBP).
• The detail=dataonly parameter omits attributes and reduces response size.
• Historical data availability varies by dataflow; exchange rates go back to 1999 (euro introduction).