INTEREST RATES

 

 

Sample Search: Compare interest rates for U.S. and U.K. three-month Treasury Bills on a quarterly basis from 1992 to the present.

 

Finding the Code:
  1. To find Datastream codes for interest rates you may enter HELP IR? in the "Program Number" area in the main program window.



    The new program window will prompt you to choose the geographic region your interest rate deals with, from a given list.



    Choose the United Kingdom and page through to find the correct code number for three-month U.K. Treasury Bills. The code is LDNTB3M.












  2. The code for three-month U.S. Treasury Bills may be found similarly by instead choosing USA from within the HELP IR? program. The code is. USTBR3M

    3. NOTE: You will have to scroll through several pages of codes before finding the proper code for three-month treasury bills.
  3. Drag the cursor to the box marked Macro at the top of the screen. Click on Macro and then on Edit Macro. Select download.mac from the list of choices and then click OK.








 

Entering the Macro:

4. A notepad screen will appear. Change ONLY what it is within quotation marks on this screen. At the top line change the file name to a:\yourfile.csv

It is important that you save the macro as a CSV file so that you can open the data in Microsoft Excel. If you do not have a floppy disk with you, save the file to the hard drive and then FTP the document to your Unix account. Files left on SSRC computers will be erased.

5. At the line that begins SEND, enter the dates of your search. After the first quotation mark, there is a comma. After this comma, enter the starting date in the form of MM-DD-YY, followed by a comma (see image). Enter the ending date in the same manner. If you want your data to run until the present, as in this case, do not include an ending date and simply leave the two commas following the starting date. The dates for this sample macro will appear as follows: ",01/01/92,,Q"

The Q following the date represents the frequency. After the commas, enter the frequency for which you want the data. Note the following frequency codes:

Daily = D

Weekly = W

Monthly = M

Quarterly = Q

Yearly = Y

Following the lines TESTLIST:

DATA

Enter your mnemonic. Enter the code exactly as it appeared on the Datastream screen. Surround the mnemonic with quotation marks, followed by a comma outside of the quotation marks. In this example involving interest rates, there will be two codes. The first will appear as "LDNTB3M", and "USTBL3M",

Note: You may enter more than one code or mnemoic in each macro. All codes must be lined up in a column, surrounding each one by quotation marks and following each by a comma, including the LAST code (See image).
  1. Move the cursor to File at the top of the notepad screen and select Save. Click on Save and then minimize this screen.




      2. Running the Macro:
    1. Return to the main Datastream screen. Press CLEAR so that the original screen appears.


    2. Select Macro at the top of the screen. Select Run Macro and then select download.mac. Click on OK.








    1. If the macro ran properly, a screen of white numbers should flash up on the main Datastream screen and then the original Datastream screen should return. If it did not run properly, an error message will appear. Note the problem and fix the macro.

      2. Opening the CSV file:

    2. Open Microsoft Excel and open your file. If your file does not appear, make sure the browser is selected to search for All Files.




    NOTE: Do not run a macro program saved as the same file while that Excel file is open. The macro will not run properly. Save the new macro as a separate file or close the Excel file.
    1. Make sure your data is saved to either your floppy disk or on your Unix account.

      2. DO NOT LEAVE FILES SAVED TO THE SSRC COMPUTERS. THEY WILL BE ERASED.

      Things to Remember:

      The International Monetary Fund's interest rates data is not included in the Interest Rates category. It can be found under Economics. Use program 150Z 97 (IMF:IFS DATABASE) for help in finding these codes. Interest rates will be listed under each country.