SASEXFSD Interface Engine

The ExtractEconData Factlet

The ExtractEconData factlet provides access to a broad array of macroeconomic content, interest rates and yields, country indices, and various exchange rate measures from both the FactSet Economics and the Standardized Economic databases. The ExtractEconData factlet uses the options listed in Table 10 to extract Economic data items for a list of country IDs or for no country IDs over time.

The DBSOURCE= option specifies a standardized database source name, such as EWIN_ECON, GI_ECON, OECD_MEI, FDS_ECON, FDS_COM, or the default, a null string, which uses the Standardized Economic data (EWIN_ECON_RGDPR_Y). Use the IDS= option to specify one or more country IDs based on the database source. For the complete list of country IDs that work with the standardized codes for the FactSet Economics database, see Table 11.

Use the ITEM= option to specify an FQL item based on the database source. You can also use the ITEM= option with the downloading syntax for Economic Request Codes described in the FactSet Online Assistant, page ID 11794, and shown in Example 56.2. Example 56.2 uses the shorthand FQL syntax in the ITEM= option to retrieve the same time series data items.

The SASEXFSD engine supports retrieval of the following FQL_entities: ECON_EXPR_DATA, SPEC_ID_DATA, FDS_ECON_DATA, EIU_ECON_DATA, CNS_ECON_DATA, EURO_STAT_DATA, IBJ_NIKKO_DATA, IMF_IFS_DATA, NTCS_ECON_DATA, OECD_OTLK_DATA, OECD_MEI_DATA, ONS_ECON_DATA, TCB_BCI_DATA, TCB_CCI_DATA, CEIC_ECON_DATA, and CEIC_CHINA_DATA.

A FactSet representative can provide you with permissions to access the databases that contain the time series data that you are interested in. For an example of using ECON_EXPR_DATA, see Example 56.3. For more information about using ECON_EXPR_DATA and SPEC_ID_DATA, see the section "Downloading Economic Function Codes to Excel" in the FactSet Online Assistant, page ID 12308. You can replace options such as START=, END=, FREQ=, CONV=, DIST=, NFB=, and FUNCTION= by using the corresponding placement of each option’s value in the FQL downloading syntax. In this example, ITEM="FDS_ECON_DATA(’FRBIPSB50001’, -121,-1,m,step,average)" gives the database source name (FDS_ECON), time series name (FRBIPSB50001), start and end dates, monthly frequency, distribution (step), and conversion (average); no-feel-back defaults to 1.

For the complete list of the data series codes available with the standardized FactSet Economics database, see the ExtractEconData appendix, linked in the FactSet Online Assistant, page ID 16948. The data are available at monthly, quarterly, and annual frequencies, as denoted by the _M, _Q, and _Y suffixes in the code.

Use the FREQ= option to specify the frequency of the data, and use the DATES= option to specify a date range for selecting time series data. For more information, see the section "Frequency" in the FactSet Online Assistant, page ID 11794.

You can use the CONV= option to specify CONV=SUM, AVERAGE, AVERAGENP, or none (the default is none).

You can use the DIST= option to specify DIST=STEP (step distribution), EVEN, or none (the default).

You can use the NFB= option to specify your no-feel-back setting (0, 1, or 2) to indicate full feel-back, no feel-back (the default), or feel-back until most recent data point, respectively (do not fill in data past the last available data point).

You can use the FUNCTION= option to apply an economic function to the data values of the time series (such as FUNCTION=ZSCORE). For a list of economic functions, see the FactSet Online Assistant, page ID 12308.

The ORIENTATION= option supports only ETI, which is the default.

Table 10: ExtractEconData Factlet Options

Option Description
IDS= Specifies a string array with a list of the country identifiers from the Standardized Economic database
ITEMS= Specifies the economic series mnemonic (for example, US GDP database source [mnemonic] is FDS_ECON[BEANIPAA191RL1@US])
DATES= Specifies a date string such as YYYYMMDD:YYYYMMDD:F or relative dates ’-1b:-4b:m’
START= Specifies the numeric start date in YYYYMMDD format
END= Specifies the numeric end date in YYYYMMDD format
FREQ= Specifies the valid FQL frequencies, such as M, D, W, Q, and Y. Note: For economic request codes, a frequency argument is necessary to retrieve the data.
DBSOURCE= Specifies a standardized database source name, such as EWIN_ECON, GI_ECON, OECD_MEI, FDS_ECON, FDS_COM, or the default, a null string, which uses the Standardized Economic data (EWIN_ECON_RGDPR_Y)
CONV= Specifies the conversion technique for aggregating periods, when a data series of a higher frequency is converted to a lower frequency; for example, you can use this option to convert a quarterly series to an annual series (for example, SUM, AVERAGE, or AVERAGENP, which excludes NAs).
DIST= Specifies the distribution technique for spreading over periods when a data series of a lower frequency is distributed to a higher frequency; for example, you can use it to distribute an annual series to a quarterly series (such as STEP, EVEN, or NONE).
NFB= Specifies the optional "no-feel-back" argument in FQL codes. If you do not specify the NFB= option, the returned data series contains NAs where the data are not available (default is NFB=1). If you want the data to "feel back" over NAs to find the last actual data point and carry these data forward, specify either NFB=0 or NFB=2.
FUNCTION= Adds FQL function property to change data value; for example, FUNCTION=ZSCORE
ORIENTATION= Specifies an optional orientation (default is ETI, entity-time-item)


Table 11: Country Identifiers

Country Country ID Country Country ID
Argentina CC_AR Lithuania CC_LT
Australia CC_AU Luxembourg CC_LU
Austria CC_AT Malaysia CC_MY
Azerbaijan CC_AZ Malta CC_MT
Bangladesh CC_BD Mexico CC_MX
Belarus CC_BY Morocco CC_MA
Belgium CC_BE Netherlands CC_NL
Bolivia CC_BO New Zealand CC_NZ
Brazil CC_BR Nigeria CC_NG
Bulgaria CC_BG Norway CC_NO
Canada CC_CA Pakistan CC_PK
Chile CC_CL Panama CC_PA
China CC_CN Paraguay CC_PY
Colombia CC_CO Peru CC_PE
Costa Rica CC_CR Philippines CC_PH
Croatia CC_HR Poland CC_PL
Cyprus CC_CY Portugal CC_PT
Czech Republic CC_CZ Romania CC_RO
Denmark CC_DK Russia CC_RU
Dominican Republic CC_DO Saudi Arabia CC_SA
Ecuador CC_EC Singapore CC_SG
Egypt CC_EG Slovakia CC_SK
Estonia CC_EE Slovenia CC_SI
Finland CC_FI South Africa CC_ZA
France CC_FR South Korea CC_KR
Germany CC_DE Spain CC_ES
Greece CC_GR Sri Lanka CC_LK
Hong Kong CC_HK Sweden CC_SE
Hungary CC_HU Switzerland CC_CH
Iceland CC_IS Taiwan CC_TW
India CC_IN Thailand CC_TH
Indonesia CC_ID Turkey CC_TR
Ireland CC_IE Ukraine CC_UA
Israel CC_IL United Kingdom CC_GB
Italy CC_IT United States CC_US
Japan CC_JP Uruguay CC_UY
Jordan CC_JO Uzbekistan CC_UZ
Kazakhstan CC_KK Venezuela CC_VE
Latvia CC_LV Vietnam CC_VN


Last updated: June 19, 2025