BCB Brazil Central Bank Series Scraper

BCB Brazil Central Bank Series Scraper

Scrape any macroeconomic time series from the BCB Brazil Central Bank SGS API, from daily Selic rates to monthly IPCA inflation. Every observation returns its date, value, and series metadata. No API key or registration required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The BCB Brazil Central Bank's SGS system holds thousands of economic indicators, but querying it programmatically means parsing a custom API and handling pagination. This Actor reads any series by its numeric ID, fetches the last N observations or the full history, and returns each data point in one flat row. It is built for analysts and researchers who need clean, structured time series without writing a single line of code.

Who uses it	What they scrape BCB Brazil Central Bank for
Economists	Pull daily Selic or monthly IPCA series into a spreadsheet for monetary policy analysis.
Quantitative analysts	Feed USD/BRL exchange rate history directly into a backtesting pipeline.
Financial journalists	Grab the latest unemployment or GDP figures for a story on the Brazilian economy.
Data engineers	Schedule regular ingestion of BCB series into a data warehouse without maintaining a custom connector.

What it does

This Actor collects a single BCB SGS time series by its numeric ID and returns each observation as a flat row with date, value, and series metadata.

• 📈 Full history or last N: fetch every observation since the series began, or limit to the most recent N data points.
• 🔢 Single series ID: target one indicator at a time, such as 433 for IPCA, 11 for Selic, or 1 for USD/BRL.
• 📅 Date-value pairs: each row includes the reference date and the numeric value, ready for charting or modeling.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with BCB Brazil Central Bank data

📊 Monitor inflation trends.

An economist fetches the last 24 months of IPCA (series 433) every month and plots the trajectory for a client newsletter.

💱 Backtest currency strategies.

A quant pulls the full USD/BRL exchange rate history (series 1) into a pandas DataFrame to test a carry-trade model.

🏦 Track Selic rate decisions.

A fixed-income analyst scrapes the daily Selic target (series 11) after each COPOM meeting to update a yield curve model.

📰 Report on Brazilian GDP.

A journalist grabs the latest quarterly GDP series (series 4380) right after the IBGE release and writes a same-day article.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	The BCB SGS endpoint is public; this Actor handles the requests and parsing for you.
Clean flat schema	Every observation is one row with a date and a value, no nested JSON to unpack.
Full history on demand	Leave lastN empty and the Actor pages through the entire series automatically.
Runs on Apify	Schedule it, integrate with Make or Zapier, or call it from Python or JavaScript via the API.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets BCB Brazil Central Bank the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	BCB Brazil Central Bank Series Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When BCB Brazil Central Bank changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with a single BCB SGS series ID and optionally limit the output to the last N observations. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "maxItems": 10,
 "seriesId": 433,
 "lastN": 50
}

A larger pull:

{
 "maxItems": 200,
 "seriesId": 433,
 "lastN": 50
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0085 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.85
1,000 results	$8.50
10,000 results	$85.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the BCB Brazil Central Bank Series Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to BCB Brazil Central Bank through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/bcb-brazil-central-bank-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that the series ID is correct on the BCB SGS portal. Also verify that lastN is not set to 0. If both look right, the series may have no observations for the requested range.

The run failed with an error.

Look at the Actor log. Common causes are an invalid series ID or a temporary BCB API outage. Wait a few minutes and retry, or double-check the series code.

I got fewer rows than I expected.

The BCB SGS API returns only the observations that exist. If you set lastN to 100 but the series has only 60 data points, you will get 60 rows. Leave lastN empty to fetch everything.

The date format looks wrong in my CSV.

The Actor preserves the BCB's original date format. You can reformat the column in Excel or use a post-processing step in your code.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Where do I find the numeric ID for a BCB series?	Visit the SGS system at dadosabertos.bcb.gov.br and search for the indicator by name. The series code is shown in the results, for example 433 for IPCA or 11 for Selic.
Can I scrape multiple series in one run?	This Actor is designed for one series per run. To collect several series, run the Actor multiple times with different series IDs, or use Apify's actor calling features to orchestrate parallel runs.
What date format does the Actor return?	Dates are returned in the format provided by the BCB API, typically DD/MM/YYYY for daily series and MM/YYYY for monthly series.
Does this Actor require a BCB API key?	No. The BCB SGS API is open and public. This Actor makes direct HTTP requests without any authentication.
How far back does the data go?	It depends on the series. Some series like the Selic rate go back to the 1980s, while others start later. If you leave lastN empty, the Actor fetches every observation available.
Can I get the data in Excel?	Yes. Once the run finishes, you can export the dataset to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML directly from the Apify console.
Is the Actor suitable for high-frequency trading?	The BCB SGS API is not designed for real-time streaming. It is best for daily, monthly, or quarterly macroeconomic series used in research and analysis.
What happens if I enter an invalid series ID?	The BCB API will return an error, and the Actor will log it and stop. Check the series ID on the SGS portal and try again.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Banco Central do Brasil. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.