Documentation

How the GMD is constructed: appendix, methodology, and per-variable and per-country sources.

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Technical appendix · GMD Version 2026_06

The primary reference: data sources, construction methods, and variable definitions behind the most recent release of the Global Macro Database.

How the data is built

The essentials in brief. Full detail is in the appendix and the FAQ.

Splicing & chain-linking

Many sources are joined by matching growth rates, not pasting levels, which avoids artificial jumps.

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Anchor year 2018

History before 2018 stays fixed across releases; recent years absorb new revisions.

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Base year 2015

Real and index variables are rebased to 2015 so levels are comparable across countries.

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Ratios in percent

All ratio variables (e.g. govdebt_GDP) are expressed in percent of GDP.

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Source priority

Modern official sources → reconstructed historical series → international aggregators.

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Quality review

Every series is visually inspected: over 4,000 plots checked for breaks and outliers.

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Documentation by variable

Click a variable to open its PDF: the raw underlying sources, the final GMD series, the splice points between sources, and notes on adjustments.

National accounts
nGDP Nominal GDP rGDP Real GDP
Consumption & investment
cons Total consumption hcons Household consumption gcons Government consumption inv Gross capital formation finv Gross fixed capital formation
External sector
exports Exports imports Imports CA_GDP Current account (% GDP) REER Real effective exchange rate USDfx USD exchange rate
Government finances
cgovdebt_GDP Central gov. debt cgovdef_GDP Central gov. deficit cgovexp_GDP Central gov. expenditure cgovrev_GDP Central gov. revenue cgovtax_GDP Central gov. tax gen_govdebt_GDP General gov. debt gen_govdef_GDP General gov. deficit gen_govexp_GDP General gov. expenditure gen_govrev_GDP General gov. revenue gen_govtax_GDP General gov. tax
Money & interest rates
M0 M1 M2 M3 M4 cbrate Central bank policy rate strate Short-term rate ltrate Long-term rate
Prices & labor
CPI Consumer price index infl Inflation HPI House price index unemp Unemployment rate pop Population

Documentation by country

Per-country PDFs show which underlying sources were used, for which period, and how the series were spliced together.

Pick a country from the list, then open its documentation PDF.