Macroflow

Introduction

Macroflow is an interactive website for economic and financial data. The difference between macroflow and other online databases is that the data in macroflow are structured by the accounting identities that constrain their values. In other words, macroflow does not just provide access to data, it also provides access to the relationships that define these data.

The primary aim of macroflow is to demystify economic and financial data. By making use of the natural information architecture of economic and financial data, we hope that concepts like gross domestic product and government debt will become more transparent for users of the website. For example, when viewing the GDP series, a user can immediately see that GDP is both defined and constrained by the sums of various types of income and expenditure in the economy, as well as the sums of different sectors' incomes.

The current version of macroflow incorporates data on the national accounts and public sector finances for the United Kingdom. If there are data that you would like to see in macroflow, let us know at info@macroflow.org and we will try to include them in the next update.

Using the website

The macroflow homepage presents the central income-expenditure identity in macroeconomics, from which users can immediately access a set of key economic aggregates for the United Kingdom. Alternatively, users can navigate to alphabetic lists of series and identities using the data dropdown menu.

The webpages for each series include an interactive time series plot and a list of the accounting identities in which the series enters. Within the plot, users can vary the time period by dragging the date bar underneath the horizontal axis, and can access tooltip information by holding their cursor over the chart area. Users can vary the observation frequency, and whether the series is measured at current prices or chain-linked values, using the dropdown menus above the plot. If a series has the option of chain-linked values, then the relevant deflator can also be viewed. In addition, some of the quarterly series have the option of seasonal adjustment and non-seasonal adjustment.

As well as plotting the raw series, there is also a dropdown that allows users to view the series as a percentage of GDP or as a growth rate. The former is available for nominal series, while the latter is available for both nominal and chain-linked series, and different growth rates are available for variables at different frequencies. Finally, users can download the data as a csv file, the current plot view as a png image, and access publisher information using the series info dropdown.

As well as using the alphabetical lists or the search function, users can also navigate directly to other series using the lists of identities that appear on the series pages. Documents explaining where these identities come from, and how they fit together, can be found in the explainers dropdown menu.

Copyright and acknowledgements

All of the data in macroflow are ONS data and can be re-used subject to the conditions of the Open Government Licence and UK Government Licensing Framework. Several statisticians at the ONS have been extremely patient in responding to our queries; macroflow would not have been possible without their help.