Api Data Fetcher

What it does

This skill assists economists and researchers in retrieving macroeconomic data from various APIs, including FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data), World Bank, IMF, BLS, and OECD. It automatically generates clean, documented Python code to fetch this data, incorporating error handling and best practices for API usage. The generated code handles API key management using environment variables and provides basic data cleaning and formatting.

When to use it

• Downloading macroeconomic indicators like GDP, unemployment rates, or inflation figures.
• Creating custom datasets by combining data from multiple sources.
• Automating regular updates of existing economic datasets for ongoing projects.
• Fetching cross-country panel data for comparative analysis.
• Retrieving financial data using the Yahoo Finance API.

Key capabilities

• Data fetching from FRED, World Bank, IMF, BLS, OECD and Yahoo Finance APIs.
• Automatic generation of Python code with error handling.
• API key management through environment variables (e.g., FRED_API_KEY).
• Data cleaning and formatting within the generated code.
• Documentation of series definitions in the generated code.

Example prompts

• "Fetch GDP and unemployment data from FRED for the years 2010 to 2023."
• "Get World Bank data on poverty rates for India between 2015 and 2020."
• “Can you generate code to pull inflation data from the BLS?”

Tips & gotchas

• You'll need Python installed, along with the necessary API packages (e.g., fredapi, wbdata). The generated code will include installation instructions if a package is missing.
• Ensure you have obtained and configured an API key for services like FRED; this often involves setting an environment variable (FRED_API_KEY).
• The skill focuses on generating code—you'll need to execute the generated Python script to actually retrieve the data.