Global Macro Database

About the Project

Macroeconomic statistics are essential for researchers and practitioners. Yet the underlying data are scattered across hundreds of sources, with inconsistent units, country and time coverage, and variable definitions. The result is unnecessary friction: users often spend weeks (or longer) cleaning, harmonizing, and combining data before they can do any analysis.

The Global Macro Database (GMD) was built to remove that bottleneck. Our key innovation is to integrate a total of 111 data sources, both historical and current, which are updated quarterly based on a large, systematic pipeline that divides up the process of downloading, cleaning, and combining data. For more information about the project's motivation and methodology, see our paper (Müller, Xu, Lehbib, and Chen, 2025) and the technical documentation.

Citation

If you use the GMD, it must be cited as follows (please cite the exact version you used):

@techreport{GMD2025,
  title       = {The Global Macro Database: A New International Macroeconomic Dataset (Version 2025-12)},
  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}
}

Because the GMD is updated quarterly, we highly recommend citing the exact version you used, as in the example above.

Terms of Use & License

Summary: The Global Macro Database (GMD) is free to use and share for non-commercial purposes (e.g., academic research), provided you attribute and cite the dataset and share only under the same license terms. Any commercial use is prohibited unless you obtain a separate commercial license from us.

No commercial use (important): Any use that is primarily intended for, or directed toward, a commercial advantage or monetary compensation is considered commercial and is therefore forbidden under this license. For the avoidance of doubt, the following are commercial uses (non-exhaustive) and are not permitted:

• Product / service use: incorporating the data (in whole or in part) into any product, platform, or service that is sold, licensed, paywalled, or otherwise monetized.
• Commercial analytics: using the data to support revenue-generating activities or business decisions (e.g., trading, investment research, risk management, underwriting, pricing, forecasting for business operations, client reporting).
• Consulting / client deliverables: using the data (or outputs based on it) in work delivered to a paying client or for a paid engagement.
• Redistribution for value: selling, sublicensing, or otherwise distributing the data (or any portion) in exchange for payment or other consideration.
• Derived values: selling or monetizing any values derived from the dataset (indices, signals, features, cleaned series, transformed series, benchmarks, etc.).
• Commercial AI / model development: using the data to train, fine-tune, or benchmark models that are used in, or distributed as part of, a commercial product or service.
• Sponsored / marketing use: using the data in paid reports, sponsored research, marketing materials, or other promotional activity.

If you are unsure whether your intended use is commercial, treat it as commercial and contact us for permission at [email protected].

The Global Macro Database (GMD) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) .

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), citing the authors as specified in the Citation section, including a link to the license and an indication of changes made. Attribution must not suggest endorsement.
• NonCommercial – The material may not be used for commercial purposes, including the sale of the data (in whole or in part) or the sale/monetization of values based on it.
• ShareAlike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license.

Citation requirement: If you use the GMD, you must cite it. See the Citation section above for the required BibTeX (including the version).

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.