Central Bank Interest Rates API

What you can read

Coverage includes the official policy rate of the ten banks listed below. Each observation identifies the country, authority, currency and instrument. Rates are decimal strings in percent per annum, and negative values are allowed. A point observation has rate and qualifier; a range has lower_bound and upper_bound.

Banks and instruments

Supported euro member codes are DEU, FRA, IRL, NLD, PRT, SVN, EST, LVA, LTU and HRV. Each returns the same ECB instrument, with history from that member's euro adoption. Send country codes in uppercase.

Get the current rate

Omit date to request the latest source observation at or before today UTC. A future effective date never replaces the current rate early. These requests describe the scheduled public contract.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $NARWHAL_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.narwhalapi.com/v1/economics/USA/central-bank/policy-rate"

The illustrative USA response uses the saved range example effective 11 December 2025. The Canada example illustrates a point response; its value and date are illustrative.

{
  "country": "USA",
  "authority": "federal_reserve",
  "currency": "USD",
  "instrument": "federal_funds_target_range",
  "rate_type": "range",
  "lower_bound": "3.50",
  "upper_bound": "3.75",
  "unit": "percent",
  "effective_on": "2025-12-11"
}

{
  "country": "CAN",
  "authority": "bank_of_canada",
  "currency": "CAD",
  "instrument": "overnight_rate_target",
  "rate_type": "point",
  "rate": "2.00",
  "qualifier": "exact",
  "unit": "percent",
  "observed_on": "2025-12-11"
}

Get a rate on a past date

Pass date=YYYY-MM-DD for the latest observation at or before that date. Missing days are not synthesised. Every observation has exactly one of effective_on or observed_on; announced_on may also be present. Preserve that distinction when you compare countries or record rate changes.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $NARWHAL_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.narwhalapi.com/v1/economics/USA/central-bank/policy-rate?date=2025-12-11"

Get the history

Use start, end and limit on the history route. The default limit is 100, with an allowed range of 1 to 1000. Responses contain country, observations in oldest-first order and next_cursor. Pass the returned cursor as cursor for the next page.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $NARWHAL_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.narwhalapi.com/v1/economics/USA/central-bank/policy-rate/history?start=2025-12-11&end=2026-10-27&limit=100"

A cursor pins publications for 24 hours. Expired cursors or withdrawn rights return 409. Invalid input returns 400, unavailable data returns 404, and unsafe source data returns 503. Each request consumes one metered unit. See error documentation for error handling.

Official reserves

The scheduled reserves route is /v1/economics/{country}/central-bank/reserves, with optional period=YYYY-MM. Coverage includes AUS, MYS, the ten euro members listed above and CZE through the ECB series. Australia reports AUD, Malaysia MYR, and the ECB series EUR. Responses preserve the published currency and scale, either units or millions; values are never converted. Missing months remain missing. released_on is the publisher's file update date.

Sources

Narwhal normalised the Bank of Canada format. ECB modifications are limited to format. Values are served exactly as published. No bank endorsement is implied.

• Source: Bank of Canada. This information is available free of charge on the Bank of Canada website: https://www.bankofcanada.ca.
• Source: European Central Bank (ECB). This information is available free of charge on the ECB website: https://www.ecb.europa.eu.
• Source: Reserve Bank of Australia 2026. This information is available free of charge on the RBA website: https://www.rba.gov.au.
• Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
• Source: Bank Negara Malaysia. Data and information are subject to Terms of Use for BNM Datasets. https://www.bnm.gov.my/terms-of-use-bnm-datasets
• Source: Sveriges Riksbank, with the date of the data.
• Source: the CNB
• Source: Norges Bank
• Source: Danmarks Nationalbank
• Source: Statistics Denmark - StatBank.dk/dnrentd
• Source: Banco Central do Brasil (SGS 432), Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL).

What is a policy rate?

A central bank sets a policy rate to steer short-term interest rates. The instrument differs by bank: the ECB stream reports the deposit facility rate, while the US stream reports the federal funds target range.

Is the central bank interest rate data free?

Access is available on every plan, including Free, with live data. Each request consumes one metered unit. The underlying data is available free at the banks' websites, subject to the source terms and notices above.