The Global Macro Database

Link to paper 📄

This repository complements our paper, Müller, Xu, Lehbib, and Chen (2025), which introduces a panel dataset of 46 macroeconomic variables across 243 countries from historical records beginning in the year 1086 until 2024, including projections through the year 2030.

Features

• Unparalleled Coverage: Combines data from 32 contemporary sources (e.g., IMF, World Bank, OECD) and 86 historical datasets, totaling 118 sources.
• Extensive Variables: Covers national accounts, consumption, investment, trade, prices, government finances, interest rates, employment, and financial crises.
• Transparent Source Prioritization: Prioritizes country-specific sources over international aggregators to ensure both historical depth and accuracy.
• Harmonized Data: All data is cleaned, spliced, and chainlinked for consistent cross-country comparison.
• Comprehensive Metadata: Variable definitions follow SNA 2008 standards and are documented in the technical appendix.
• Frequent Updates: Quarterly releases with version control and changelogs.
• Open Access & Tools: Access data via web, Python, R, or Stata packages. All processing code is open source.

Data Access

Download via Website

Stata package:

ssc install gmd
gmd rGDP, country(FRA)

Python package:

pip install global_macro_data

from global_macro_data import gmd
df = gmd(version="2025_09", country=["USA", "CHN"], variables=["rGDP", "CPI"])

R package:

install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("KMueller-Lab/Global-Macro-Database-R")
library(globalmacrodata)
df <- gmd(version = "2025_09", country = c("USA", "CHN"), variables = c("rGDP", "CPI"))

Release Schedule

Release Date	Version	Details
2025-01-30	2025_01	Initial release
2025-03-31	2025_03	Legacy version
2025-06-30	2025_06	Legacy version
2025-08-23	2025_08	Legacy version (Patch)
2025-09-30	2025_09	Current version
2025-12-31	2025_12	Planned
2026-03-31	2026_03	Planned
2026-06-30	2026_06	Planned

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Release Note (2025_09)

Overview

Released September 30, 2025. This quarterly update introduces improved government finance statistics, streamlined source handling, a new outlier detection process, and numerous fixes and small improvements.

Key changes

Improved Government Finance Statistics

• Distinguishes between central and general government data
• Included in the GMD as separate series and consolidated aggregates

Improved Download Infrastructure

• Downloads now pull directly from IMF, Eurostat, OECD, and UN rather than dbnomics
• IMF downloads now use the newly released API (3.0)

Pipeline Improvements

• The GMD pipeline was overhauled
• Runtime improved by approximately 10x

New and Improved Sources

• Various IMF and OECD datasets are treated as a single "source" where appropriate
• Added historical monetary statistics for France and unemployment series from Eurostat

Automated Error Checking

• Automated checks now cover multiple error types across the dataset
• Suspicious values are manually reviewed and confirmed

Bug Fixes

• Thanks to many contributors, various small bugs were identified and fixed
• Corrected systematic mistakes identified in the World Bank's WDI and IMF's FPP data

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Citation

Please cite the dataset as:

@techreport{GMD2025,
  title = {The Global Macro Database: A New International Macroeconomic Dataset},
  author = {M{"u}ller, Karsten and Xu, Chenzi and Lehbib, Mohamed and Chen, Ziliang},
  institution = {National Bureau of Economic Research},
  type = {Working Paper},
  series = {Working Paper Series},
  number = {33714},
  year = {2025},
  month = {April},
  doi = {10.3386/w33714},
  URL = {http://www.nber.org/papers/w33714},
}

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Acknowledgments

The development of the Global Macro Database would not have been possible without the generous funding provided by the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) through the PYP grants (WBS A-0003319-01-00 and A-0003319-02-00), a Tier 1 grant (A-8001749- 00-00), and the NUS Risk Management Institute (A-8002360-00-00). This financial support laid the foundation for the successful completion of this extensive project.

License

The Global Macro Database (GMD) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) . This means that the dataset is freely available for research and educational purposes but may not be used commercially.

Under this license, users are free to:

• Share – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

• Adapt – remix, transform, and build upon the material

• These freedoms are granted under the following conditions:

  • Attribution – Appropriate credit must be given to the Global Macro Database (GMD), including a link to the license and indication of any changes made. Attribution must not imply endorsement.
  • NonCommercial – The material may not be used for commercial purposes.
  • ShareAlike – If you remix or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license.

For licensing or usage inquiries, please contact us at hello@globalmacrodata.com.