BIS Central Bank Policy Rates Scraper

BIS Central Bank Policy Rates Scraper

Scrape central bank policy rates from the BIS, by country and frequency, up to a million per run. Every rate comes with its date, value, and country code in a flat row. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The BIS publishes the world's central bank policy rates, but downloading them manually means clicking through country pages and stitching spreadsheets together. This Actor reads the BIS public data API directly, so you get clean, structured policy rate time series for any country or the whole dataset. No API key, no registration, no manual downloads.

Who uses it	What they scrape BIS for
Macro economists	Build a single panel dataset of global policy rates for a research paper or model.
Quantitative analysts	Feed daily or monthly policy rates into a systematic trading or risk model.
Financial journalists	Track which central banks are hiking or cutting rates this week.
Data engineers	Automate a daily pipeline that loads the latest BIS policy rates into a warehouse.

What it does

This Actor collects central bank policy rates from the BIS statistics warehouse and returns each observation as a flat row with the date, rate value, and country code.

• 🌍 Country filter: pull rates for a single BIS country code like US, XM (euro area), GB, or JP, or leave empty to collect all available countries.
• 📅 Frequency selector: choose daily (D) or monthly (M) series to match your analysis horizon.
• 📊 Flat row output: each observation is one row with the date, rate, and country, ready for pandas, Excel, or a database.

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

What you can do with BIS data

📈 Build a global monetary policy dataset.

A macro researcher runs the Actor with no country filter and monthly frequency, then joins the output with inflation and GDP data to study rate cycles across 40 economies.

⚡ Monitor rate changes for a trading signal.

A quant sets the Actor to daily frequency for the US and euro area, pipes the results into a Python script, and generates an alert when a policy rate changes.

📰 Power a central bank rate dashboard.

A data journalist schedules a weekly run for a curated list of country codes, then publishes a chart of the latest policy rates alongside central bank meeting dates.

🗄️ Feed a data warehouse.

A data engineer runs the Actor daily, appends the flat rows to a BigQuery table, and gives the analytics team a single source of truth for BIS policy rates.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No BIS API key	Reads the public BIS data endpoint directly, no registration or token management.
One schema for all countries	Every country returns the same columns, so you can stack them without cleaning.
Daily or monthly	Pick the frequency that matches your model, from daily policy rates to end-of-month snapshots.
Runs on Apify	Schedule it, get webhook notifications, and store results in Apify's dataset storage or your own cloud.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets BIS the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	BIS Central Bank Policy Rates Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When BIS 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 BIS country code and a frequency choice, and set a cap on the total number of policy rate observations collected per run. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "country": "US",
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "country": "US",
 "maxItems": 200
}

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 BIS Central Bank Policy Rates 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 BIS 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/bis-policy-rates-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 country code you entered is a valid BIS code like US, GB, or XM. Also try leaving the country field empty to see all available countries. If the frequency is set to daily but the BIS only publishes monthly for that country, you may get an empty dataset.

The run finished but the dataset has fewer rows than my maxItems setting.

The maxItems setting is an upper cap. The Actor stops when it has collected that many observations or when it has exhausted the BIS data for your country and frequency selection. This is expected behavior.

I got an error about the country code.

BIS country codes are case-sensitive and use a specific format. Use the two-letter codes like US, GB, JP, or XM for the euro area. Check the BIS statistics website for the exact code for your country.

The daily data has gaps for weekends and holidays.

Policy rates do not change on non-business days. The BIS daily series typically shows the rate as it stood on each business day, with gaps for weekends and holidays. This is the raw data as the BIS publishes it.

Can I get the central bank name instead of the country code?

The Actor returns the BIS country code as provided by the source. You can join the output with a static lookup table that maps BIS codes to central bank names if you need the full name in your analysis.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What is a BIS country code?	The BIS uses short codes like US, GB, JP, and XM for the euro area. You can find the full list on the BIS statistics website. Leave the country input empty to collect rates for all available countries.
Does this Actor need a BIS API key?	No. It reads the same public data endpoint that powers the BIS statistics portal, so no registration or API key is required.
What is the difference between daily and monthly frequency?	Daily gives you the policy rate as it stood on each business day. Monthly gives you end-of-month values. Choose the one that matches your analysis or reporting cycle.
How far back does the data go?	The BIS publishes policy rate series that often start in the 1940s or 1950s, depending on the country. The Actor returns whatever the BIS makes available for the selected country and frequency.
Can I get rates for multiple countries in one run?	Yes. Leave the country code input empty and the Actor will collect policy rates for all countries the BIS covers, up to the maximum items you set.
What does the output look like?	Each row is a flat object with the observation date, the policy rate value, and the BIS country code. You can export it as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify dataset tab.
Is this the same data as the BIS policy rate tables on their website?	Yes. The Actor pulls from the same BIS statistics warehouse that generates the tables and charts on the BIS website.
Can I schedule this to run every day?	Yes. Apify lets you schedule the Actor to run on a cron schedule, so you can collect the latest policy rates daily or weekly without touching it.
What is the maximum number of policy rates I can collect?	You can set the maximum up to 1,000,000 observations per run. The actual number depends on how many countries and how much history the BIS has for your selection.
Does this Actor handle revisions to historical rates?	The Actor always returns the latest data the BIS publishes. If the BIS revises a historical rate, the next run will pick up the revised value.

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 Bank for International Settlements. 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.