FRED Data Viz

Create publication-ready economic comparison charts from Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED). Use when the user needs to visualize, compare, or analyze economic time series data such as GDP, wages, inflation, employment, corporate profits, or any FRED-series data. Triggers on requests for economic charts, FRED data visualization, productivity-pay gap graphs, wage growth comparisons, GDP vs compensation charts, indexed economic data plots, or annotated timeline visualizations of macroeconomic indicators.

FRED Data Visualization

Create indexed comparison charts from Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) series.

Quick Start

For a simple two-series comparison:

python3 scripts/fred_chart.py --config chart_config.json --output chart.png

Workflow

1. Identify the FRED series

Find series IDs at fred.stlouisfed.org:

Indicator	Common Series
Real GDP	GDPC1
GDP Per Capita	A939RX0Q048SBEA (or compute from GDPC1 + POPTHM)
Compensation Per Hour	COMPRNFB
Median Weekly Earnings	LES1252881600Q
Corporate Profits	CP
CPI	CPIAUCSL
Unemployment	UNRATE

2. Create config JSON

{
  "title": "USA: GDP vs Wages (1959 = 100)",
  "series": [
    {
      "id": "A939RX0Q048SBEA",
      "label": "Real GDP Per Capita",
      "color": "#2E86AB"
    },
    {
      "id": "COMPRNFB",
      "label": "Real Compensation Per Hour",
      "color": "#F18F01"
    }
  ],
  "start_date": "1959-01-01",
  "end_date": "2026-12-31",
  "fill_gap": true,
  "annotations": [
    {
      "date": "1971-08-15",
      "label": "Nixon Shock",
      "position": "top",
      "y": 140
    }
  ]
}

Config fields:

• title: Chart title
• series[].id: FRED series ID
• series[].label: Legend label
• series[].color: Optional hex color
• start_date/end_date: Date range filter
• fill_gap: Shade area between first two series (default: true)
• annotations[].date: Event date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• annotations[].label: Event text (supports newlines with \n)
• annotations[].position: "top" or "bottom"
• annotations[].y: Vertical position for label placement

3. Generate chart

python3 scripts/fred_chart.py --config my_chart.json --output my_chart.png

Advanced: GDP Per Capita Calculation

When FRED lacks a direct GDP per capita series, compute it from GDP (GDPC1) and population (POPTHM):

# gdp_pc = (GDP in billions * 1e9) / (Population in thousands * 1e3)
# Or use the pre-computed series: A939RX0Q048SBEA (available from 1979)
# For earlier dates, manual calculation required

Tips

• Indexing: All series are automatically indexed to their first observation (set to 100) for fair comparison
• Annotations: Use \n for multi-line labels. Position alternates top/bottom to avoid overlap
• Zooming: Use start_date/end_date to focus on specific eras (e.g., 1959-1985)
• Colors: Choose contrasting colors. Blue (#2E86AB) and orange (#F18F01) work well
• Multiple series: Up to 5 series supported. Gap fill only applies to first two

Common Chart Patterns

Pattern	Series	Use Case
Productivity-Pay Gap	A939RX0Q048SBEA, COMPRNFB	Show worker compensation vs economic output
Wage-Inflation Comparison	CES0500000003, CPIAUCSL	Real vs nominal wage growth
Profit-Wage Divergence	CP, COMPRNFB	Where surplus goes
Historical Events	Any + annotations	Annotated economic timeline