Central Bank Rates

Overview

A collector reads daily policy rates every morning, from the BIS central bank policy rate dataset for 20 banks and from FRED for the Federal Reserve (upper bound of the target range) and the ECB (deposit facility rate). It stores the newest observation as the current rate and keeps month-end values from 2000 onward for history (from 2002-02 for Turkey). `rate` is the policy rate in percent and `date` is the date of the observation it came from. Current lookups also carry `lastUpdated`, the time of the last refresh.

Change tracking describes the most recent decision: `previousRate` is the rate before it, `lastChanged` the first date at the current rate, `change` the move in percentage points and `changeDirection` up or down. They are read from the daily series, so they stay on that decision while the rate holds; a bank whose rate has not moved since 2000 shows a change of 0 and unchanged.

`date=YYYY-MM` (paid) switches to a historical lookup: the response carries `period` and `isHistorical: true` instead of the change-tracking fields, and a month with no stored value returns a 404. Any other date format is rejected with a 400.

With `changes=true`, `change12m` is the difference in percentage points from the month-end rate twelve months earlier, and `high12m`, `low12m` and `average12m` cover the twelve months ending at the returned one. `history=true` returns those months oldest first as `period` and `rate`, where the latest row is the current reading rather than a month-end value. The 12-month figures are paid fields; `history` is only built for paid plans.

Live Test Central Bank Rates Source →

Formula

One function covers the whole catalog: the first argument names the source, the next are its inputs, and the field after them says which single value lands in the cell. Formulas covers the grammar that applies to all of them.

=VERVE("interestrate", A2, "countryName")

=VERVE.CALL("interestrate", A2, "countryName")

A2 holds the country you are looking up. Drag the formula down and each row resolves on its own.

With literal values

Nothing has to come from a cell — typed values work the same way.

=VERVE("interestrate", "US", "countryName")

=VERVE.CALL("interestrate", "US", "countryName")

Inputs

Required inputs are positional, in the order below, followed by the field. Everything else is passed as a "name", value pair after that — the same shape as SUMIFS. Premium inputs are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.

Passing an option

=VERVE("interestrate", A2, "countryName", "date", "2024-06")

=VERVE.CALL("interestrate", A2, "countryName", "date", "2024-06")

What lands in your sheet

The field — the argument after the inputs — is what makes the formula resolve to one cell. Its value is a dot-path from the table below, so swapping it is how you pull a different value — one formula per column.

Seeing everything at once

Leave the field out and the formula returns the whole response instead: two columns, field name on the left and value on the right, spilling from the cell you typed in.

=VERVE("interestrate", A2)

=VERVE.CALL("interestrate", A2)

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Each one is exactly what the field argument accepts, so swapping it is how you pull a different value into a cell. On a plan without a Premium field the cell reads #PREMIUM(field) rather than a value, so a locked field never looks like a real answer.

Filling a whole column

Both platforms make one batched call for a column rather than one request per cell, and both cost the same — 2 credits per row looked up. How you write it differs, because the two runtimes batch at different points.

=VERVE("interestrate", A2:A100, "countryName")

In Google Sheets, give the arguments ranges and the answers spill down from the cell you typed in. Custom functions there run synchronously and in isolation, so dragged cells cannot be coalesced — the range form is how a column becomes one call. The field is required here: a per-row two-column table has nowhere to spill. Use a full column per input (A2:A100, not A2) — a single-cell reference is read as row 1 only and the rest of the column comes back blank.

In Excel, type the formula once and fill down — no range form and none needed, because its runtime is asynchronous and the add-in coalesces the calls a fill produces into a single batched request. Do not hand VERVE.CALL a range: Excel flattens it into positional arguments, so A2:A100 arrives as a hundred separate arguments and the cell reads #ERR rather than filling.

Either way, column A holds your country values and the answers land beside them, one row each, blank rows skipped.

When a cell doesn't fill

A failed lookup returns readable text starting with #ERR rather than a spreadsheet error, because Excel cannot show a custom message on a real error — you would get a bare #VALUE! with no reason. The trade-off is that IFERROR() will not catch it; test with LEFT(cell, 4) = "#ERR" instead. Error handling covers the rest.

Before the formula works

The add-in reads the API key you saved once in the side panel — the key never goes in the formula, so a shared sheet does not leak it and a collaborator without access simply sees the last calculated values.

1. Install the add-in for Google Sheets or Excel.
2. Open the side panel and sign in, or paste a key from your dashboard.
3. Type the formula above into any cell.

Use cases

Forex Trading Strategies

Algorithmic currency traders evaluate interest rate differentials between countries to identify carry trade opportunities and adjust open positions before policy announcements.

Fixed Income Portfolios

When evaluating sovereign debt yields, bond portfolio managers compare current policy rates against benchmark curves to model duration risks across international markets.

Macroeconomic Dashboards

Financial media portals publish current central bank benchmark rates and recent change directions next to national inflation reports for market researchers.

Loan Underwriting Calculations

Calculate cross-border financing costs by feeding sovereign policy rates directly into commercial lending valuation models across 22 tracked economies.

Other ways to use Central Bank Rates

Set up Central Bank Rates on VerveSheets, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveSheets account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.

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